Israel’s government today adopted the 2025 budget, much of which goes to “supporting the wars it is waging on various fronts” and “safeguarding the resilience of the economy,” according to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
The budget, which must also be voted on by the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, amounts to 607.4 billion shekels (150 billion euros) and contains a 9 billion shekels (2.2 billion euros) aid package for the thousands of reservists which were called by the army, after the start of the war against the Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023.
The public deficit is set at 4.3% for this year, the far-right minister clarified.
BREAKING: #Israel‘s government adopts the 25′-26’ State Budget, with an upsurge of military spending indicative of a protracted, high-intensity, armed conflict in #Gazathe West Bank and beyond. A thread: pic.twitter.com/9SMrHcW2GT
— Itay Epshtain (@EpshtainItay) November 1, 2024
Complaints Ben-Gvir
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s coalition has a majority in the Knesset but several ministers criticized some of the budget cuts. Itamar Ben-Gvir (Minister of Internal Security, far-right) therefore denounced the reduction in funding for his ministry, which will “damage the proper functioning of the police, prison administration and rescue services”.
The ultra-Orthodox parties, key members of the coalition, are also pressuring Netanyahu to vote against a bill to draft certain talmudic school students (geshivot) who until now were partially exempt from military service.
Netanyahu praised “an important, difficult but necessary budget in this year of war.”
He announced additional defense spending as Israel confronts Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah on its northern border and in Lebanon. Israel also faces attacks and threats from Iran and its proxies. The amount of the fund will be decided by a special committee on national security.
Opposition groups have criticized this 2025 budget plan, which they say favors Netanyahu’s coalition partners.
According to opposition leader Yair Lapid, a former prime minister, this budget will “increase the spending of every family in Israel by 20,000 shekels per year” (almost 5,000 euros) and distribute “billions to ten useless ministries.”
Former Defense Secretary Benny Gantz wrote on Platform X that he was unable to help reservists, who leave their families and jobs to spend several months on the battlefields, the nearly 66,0000 displaced from the north of the country because of the daily of Hezbollah rockets, or the victims of the economic crisis that has been affecting the country for a year.
Source: RES-MPE
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