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2025 State Budget

Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich speaking at the Knesset plenum, Jerusalem, September 29, 2025. (Oren Ben Hakoon/ Flash90)
September 29, 2025, 10:38 pm
Knesset narrowly approves further NIS 30.8 billion in defense spending
Budget increase passes by 55 to 50, despite strong resistance from ultra-Orthodox UTJ factions, due to absence of opposition MKs
By Ariela Karmel
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar addresses a joint press conference with his Lithuanian counterpart at the Foreign Ministry in Vilnius on July 1, 2025. (Petras Malukas / AFP)
September 15, 2025, 4:26 pm
Foreign Ministry axes most programs for rest of year, including October 7 events
Ministry says diplomatic outposts can still show film of Hamas atrocities to select audiences; more than NIS 500 million had been budgeted for public diplomacy
By Lazar Berman, Jessica Steinberg and ToI Staff
Finance Committee chair MK Hanoch Milwidsky leads a Finance committee meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem on August 12, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
September 11, 2025, 8:54 pm
Knesset panel approves NIS 80 million budget transfer for religious councils
Finance Committee votes to fund Shas-linked religious councils after ultra-Orthodox party supported coalition’s Knesset advancement of ministerial cuts to boost wartime budget
By Ariela Karmel
Lawmakers in the Knesset plenum, September 10, 2025. (Dani Shem-Tov/ Office of the Knesset Spokesperson)
September 11, 2025, 3:38 am
Knesset advances bill to increase defense budget, including for Gaza humanitarian aid
Measure aims to add NIS 31 billion ($9 billion) to the 2025 state budget, with the increase accompanied by an across-the-board cut to ministerial budgets
By Sam Sokol
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in the Knesset, February 7, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90/File)
August 19, 2025, 10:03 pm
Government votes to add billions to state budget, including $473 million in Gaza aid
As ministers approve NIS 31 billion boost to wartime spending, education minister accuses finance minister of preferring ‘the children of Gaza over the children of Israel’
By Sam Sokol
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, pictured outside the Knesset in Jerusalem on August 18, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
August 19, 2025, 3:21 pm
Government set to add billions to state budget, including for Gaza aid
Increase faces opposition from within and without government as further funds set to be diverted from ministries and from an educational program for Haredi schools
By Sam Sokol
Ultra-Orthodox Jews study at the Ponevezh yeshiva in Bnei Brak, February 27, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
April 8, 2025, 4:17 pm
Does the 2025 state budget encourage Haredim to evade IDF service?
Critics charge that allocating over NIS 1 billion in yeshiva funding incentivizes draft evasion, while Haredim complain they are being ‘slandered’ and ‘delegitimized’
By Sam Sokol
A sign for Fitch Ratings, in New York, October 9, 2011. (Henny Ray Abrams/AP)
April 1, 2025, 12:42 am
Fitch keeps Israel’s A credit rating, but warns renewed Gaza war may go on for months
Agency says credit outlook remains negative, meaning further rating cut is possible, citing ‘uncertain prospects’ for the fighting and fractious domestic politics, but also notes war gains
By Sharon Wrobel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (center) with coalition lawmakers as the 2025 state budget law is passed by the Knesset, March 25, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
March 29, 2025, 10:15 am
Poll: 70% of Israelis don’t trust government, including a third of coalition voters
Majority support a deal to return all the hostages and end war, including Netanyahu’s supporters; majority also believes budget will hurt their personal finances
By ToI Staff
A slogan in Arabic reading (R): 'Enough killing and destruction' and another reading (L): 'The children of Palestine: We want to live' are displayed during a rally calling for an end to the war where hundreds chanted anti-Hamas slogans, in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip, on March 25, 2025. (AFP)
March 26, 2025, 2:09 pm
Daily Briefing Mar. 26: Day 537 – Gazans rise up against Hamas: The end of the beginning?
Senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur on the 2025 budget bill, ramifications for political stability and the war; reports of hundreds in Gaza protesting against the terrorist regime
By Amanda Borschel-Dan and Haviv Rettig Gur
Protest demanding the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and against the firing of the government's top gatekeepers, in Tel Aviv, Israel, March 22, 2025. (AP/Ohad Zwigenberg)
March 26, 2025, 9:47 am
Moody’s warns Israel’s economy has been weakened by ‘very high political risks’
Credit agency cites risks to high-tech sector, ‘given its important role as a driver of economic growth and significant contributor to the government’s tax take’
By ToI Staff
Israelis protest against the government outside the Knesset, in Jerusalem, March 25, 2025 (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
March 26, 2025, 1:39 am
‘The State of Israel has to save them’: Thousands rally in Jerusalem for hostage deal
In the capital, protesters gather in anger and despair, beseeching the PM to reach an agreement; outside Knesset, cops shove, forcibly remove several people protesting budget vote
By Charlie Summers, Jessica Steinberg and ToI Staff
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (center) with coalition lawmakers as the 2025 state budget law is passed by the Knesset, March 25, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
March 25, 2025, 5:26 pm
In major success for government, Knesset approves 2025 budget, staving off elections
Coalition lawmakers escorted into Knesset under guard as anti-government protesters block entrance. Opposition MKs chant ‘shame’, families of hostages protest from gallery, as law passes final reading
By Sam Sokol
Yesh Atid party chair Yair Lapid leads a faction meeting at the Knesset, on March 24, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
March 24, 2025, 9:42 pm
‘Billions are being stolen’: Opposition slams 2025 state budget ahead of final vote
MKs launch 15-hour extended debate of controversial NIS 756 billion ($203.5 billion) wartime budget, which Lapid pans as the ‘greatest robbery in the history of the country’
By Sam Sokol
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and coalition lawmakers attend a vote on the 2025 state budget in the Knesset plenum, March 19, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
March 20, 2025, 1:55 pm
Clearing path for budget vote, MKs pass Economic Arrangements Law as Haredim back down
Ben Gvir’s return to the coalition defangs UTJ chief Yitzchak Goldknopf’s threat to scuttle 2025 state budget unless law exempting yeshiva students from IDF service is passed first
By Sam Sokol
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