From the Liveblog of
Monday, February 23, 2026
Smotrich decries upcoming Knesset vote against his move to double VAT exemption on personal imports
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. 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"
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich calls on members of the public to follow tonight’s Knesset vote on repealing his order to raise the tax-exemption ceiling on personal imports to $150, stating that they should pay attention to “see who is voting for you and who is voting against you.”
“Who is voting for competition? For low prices, for strong citizens? For it to be cheap here. And who will vote against? Who is voting against this order? Because they want it to be expensive here,” he says.
“This should not be related to the coalition and the opposition. This is related to the citizens of the State of Israel. The opposition needs to decide whether it is an opposition to the government or an opposition to the citizens of the State of Israel, and there are members of the coalition who are considering overturning the order” as well, he continues, calling his proposed economic reforms “a revolution that breaks monopolies.”
“They need to come to their senses and not harm the citizens of Israel,” Smotrich insists.
The cabinet on Sunday approved Smotrich’s order to raise the tax-exemption ceiling on personal imports from the previous cut-off of $75.
Since the order went into effect on December 24, it has been popular among the general public but has drawn sharp condemnation from local business owners, who succeeded in garnering support from other members of the coalition, in particular from Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party.
The Times of Israel Community.