Report: 2026 state budget has hundreds of millions secretly allocated to political purposes

In addition to the NIS 5 billion ($1.5 billion) allocated in the 2026 state budget to coalition parties’ priorities, hundreds of millions of dollars more have been transferred to political purposes under the table, according to a report by Channel 12 news.

The report says that NIS 235 million ($73 million) has been taken from the Israeli Citizens’ Fund, which includes profits from sales of offshore natural gas, and diverted toward Jewish heritage, sports facilities and yeshivas.

A retroactive addition of NIS 100 million ($31 million) to the 2025 budget’s coalition funds will go toward the ZAKA emergency group and toward youth groups and schools in settlements.

And NIS 302 million ($93 million) will be included in the budget’s base, which is meant for non-political funds, yet will go toward goals normally defined as coalition funds such as Jewish culture, strengthening Jewish identity, Torah-based core groups known as garin torani, Zionist projects in the Diaspora, Jewish law, and a local settler group in the West Bank’s Hebron, the report says.