Voicing support for Tel Aviv protest, Gantz appears to call for 2-year budget

Defense Minister Benny Gantz voices support for Israelis protesting against the government’s economic policies during the pandemic at a demonstration in Tel Aviv, and appears to call for the passage of a budget that runs through 2021 — which has become a point of contention with coalition partner Prime Minister Netanyahu.

“The citizens who have gone out to the streets are expressing real and justified distress and they have the full right to do this, and we as a government have the responsibility to listen and to work to find solutions,” Gantz writes on his Facebook page.

“The coronavirus has brought us one of the greatest health, social and economic crises in the history of the state. Together, we can overcome it by safeguarding life and livelihood,” he adds.

Gantz says he told Netanyahu and Finance Minister Israel Katz that along with the financial aid package it announced Thursday, Blue and White will insist that a “much broader budgetary policy is soon presented that will encourage growth growing forward” and goes beyond the next three months.