Netanyahu defends ‘hard’ but ‘necessary’ NIS 1.1 billion budget cuts

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defends budget cuts designed to reduce the soaring deficit, telling his cabinet the Finance Ministry’s unpopular plan to slash over a billion shekels in public spending months before the September elections is “hard but necessary.”

The cabinet votes in favor of the cuts, though Likud ministers Gilad Erdan (public security) and Israel Katz (foreign affairs) oppose it.

The proposal for NIS 1.1 billion in across-the-board cuts to public spending has drawn opposition from lawmakers and cabinet ministers whose ministries would be affected by the austerity measures.

“Budget cuts are hard, but they are necessary,” Netanyahu says at the start of the meeting. “Nobody wants to do this. I understand the ministers whose offices will be affected by the cuts, but this is what we have to do. We have to take care of our priorities.”

At a Monday cabinet meeting, Netanyahu tells ministers the Finance Ministry urgently needed to free up a quarter billion shekels to continue subsidizing afterschool care programs and provide aid to the victims of the recent forest fires.

The cuts, which will amount to 1.75% of the ministerial budgets, will also finance a Gaza border construction project.