Ministers take 52 work trips abroad, costing taxpayer $3 million-$5 million in first 7 months

24 January 2022, 5:01 pm

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Prime Minister Naftali Bennett boards the plane at Ben Gurion Airport, heading for the UN climate summit in Glasgow, October 31, 2021. (Haim Zach/GPO)

Since being sworn in seven months ago, ministers of the new government have made at least 52 trips abroad, costing somewhere between NIS 10 million ($3.15 million) and NIS 16 million ($5 million), according to a Walla news report.

Walla cited numbers provided to Likud MK Yariv Levin, who put in a request for the numbers and received only partial responses, as some ministers refused to report their spending. The same ministers had been heavily critical of the previous government when its members flew abroad on the public’s dime during the pandemic.

The minister who flew abroad the most was Foreign Minister Yair Lapid — to be expected, given his position. Lapid took nine trips lasting a total of 20 days and costing NIS 3 million ($943,577), according to the report.