Overcoming strong opposition from unions and civil society organizations and within his own fat-right government, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu managed to push an amended 2024 state budget worth NIS 582 billion ($155 billion) through the cabinet on Monday, pairing an overall spending increase of around NIS 70 billion ($18.6 billion) with widespread budget cuts on education, welfare, health and the Arab society, in order to pay for the war in Gaza.
The far-right government last year approved a two-year neo-liberal budget for 2023 and 2024, but the Gaza war has shaken up state finances, requiring budget changes and additional spending. The budget will now pass to the Knesset on February 19 in the form of a government-sponsored bill, which will need to pass three votes in the Knesset plenum, as well as voting in the Knesset Finance Committee.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the cabinet meeting. January 15, 2024 (Photo: GPO)
The extra funding includes more money for war and occupation. “We reached an agreement, and we will now pass a very important budget. This is the war budget,” Netanyahu declared. In recent weeks, the budget has become politically charged, in particular over payments Netanyahu agreed under a 2022 coalition accord with the heads of far-right and religious parties. That accord was for 8 billion shekels ($2.15 billion) to be set aside for ultra-Orthodox and far-right parties in 2024. According to a budget draft, only 2.5 billion shekels of that will be cut, despite the war funding needs.
The amended budget ran into opposition from the National Unity party, with ministers Benny Gantz, Gadi Eisenkot, Gideon Sa’ar, Hili Tropper and Yifat Shasha-Biton voting against it. In a statement, Gantz’s National Unity party argued that the new budget “does not reflect the necessary fundamental change of priorities and ignores the heavy consequences of the war.”
The new budget has garnered harsh criticism from members of the Hadash-Ta’al MKs who accused the government of abandoning the poorish Israeli population and the Arab community with its mistaken policy of cutting budgets. Hadash-Ta’al argued that “the cuts in the state budget in general and the budgets of Arab society in particular will result in fatal damage to education, infrastructure, and people whose starting point is already lower than that of Jewish society. We oppose the budget, and we oppose the cuts led by Finance Minister Smotrich, who is known for his anti-Arab policy.” stated. “They continue to transfer billions in coalition funds to the criminal war in Gaza, to reinforce occupation and settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories,” added.
According Zo Haderech, “the Treasury is advancing massive cuts, layoffs, privatizations, and new taxes. According to a draft of the 2024 budget, the far-right government is planning one of the biggest neo-liberal changes in Israel in recent decades. The plan includes: cuts to welfare, healthcare, education, housing, universities and assistance for working families; damage to programs for the Arab community; privatization of government units and the closure of the Chief Scientist’s units.”
The major cuts and restructuring that the Communist weekly exposed remain major concerns for the working families, their capacity to earn a decent living, and their capacity to receive quality social services for health, welfare and wellbeing needs that have been significantly exacerbated directly and indirectly due to the war in Gaza and the occupation of the West Bank.
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=31459
