From the Liveblog of
Monday, September 9, 2024
Lawmakers approve 1st reading of bill to allocate billions to fund northern residents, reservists
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Lawmakers vote 58-52 to approve the first reading of a bill allocating billions of shekels to help fund evacuated civilians and reserve soldiers until the end of the year, given the ongoing months-long war.
The amendment to the Deficit Reduction and Limiting Budgetary Expenditure Bill will allow the government to increase the 2024 budget — which was already amended once in March — by almost NIS 3.4 billion ($924 million).
The expansion was met with significant backlash from officials within the Finance Ministry as well as members of the opposition, who have claimed that the budget increase will blow past the deficit target despite Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s protestations.
“This law is the first part of two laws that make up a budgetary supplement designed to extend funding for the evacuees mainly in the north,” says Smotrich, blaming the need for additional funding on the length of the war.
“We estimated that the residents would be able to return to the north and the south by July, and unfortunately this did not happen,” he says, adding that he believes Israel will still be able to hit its target deficit of 6.6 percent by the end of the year.
Members of the far-right Otzma Yehudit and ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism parties vote yes on the bill despite initially expressing opposition over claims that their own budgetary interests had not been taken into account.
Nearly 70,000 residents of the north remain displaced following the outbreak of hostilities with Hezbollah in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel.
