The Knesset has approved on Monday morning, March 30, Israel’s 2026 state budget in its final reading, a move that prevents the far-right government’s immediate collapse and avoids early elections, locking in the political calendar for a vote expected in October. The vote concluded a tense, hours-long parliamentary session marked by opposition filibusters and repeated interruptions after sirens warned of Iranian ballistic missile fire, forcing lawmakers to evacuate the plenum multiple times.
According to Zo Haderekh, the budget, totaling 850 billion shekels ($271 billion), is the largest in Israel’s history. The major share of the budget, 143 billion shekels (about $38 billion), is allocated to the ongoing war against Iran and Lebanon and occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
Protest against the new “Super Sparta” budget in front of the Knesset, few minutes before the police brutally repression. Five activists were detained, Monday, March 30, 2026 (Photo: Changing Direction)
“The coalition approved a ‘super Sparta’ budget, whose sole purpose is for you to continue living, and mainly dying, on the sword. This is a country that excels at starting wars, but I wish it would invest in and care for its citizens, especially the vulnerable, with the same determination. Instead of protecting the citizens, the government is sacrificing them,” Hadash MK Ayman Odeh said.
Last February 17, a no-confidence motion was submitted in the Knesset by Hadash-Ta’al parliamentary group entitled “A Government that failed in providing personal and economic security to its citizens is not worthy of the public’s confidence,” and was supported by 41 Members of Knesset, without opposing votes. The motion did not receive the requisite majority and consequently was not accepted.
During the budget debate, lawmakers spent hours voting on a series of so-called “reservations”, most of them objections to the budget submitted by opposition lawmakers, which were roundly defeated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition. However, shortly after midnight, as lawmakers’ focus began to fade, the coalition inserted a surprise reservation onto the agenda to allocate approximately 800 million shekels ($255 million) to ultra-Orthodox programs and institutions, including yeshivas.
Because reservations are typically filed by the opposition as a procedural tactic to delay budget votes, opposition MKs appeared to treat the measure as routine and automatically backed it, failing to notice that the far-right coalition was also supporting the amendment. The added funding ultimately passed by a lopsided 107-4 vote and only Hadash lawmakers voted against it, before lawmakers appeared to realize their error
“Had our faction not noticed the maneuver, more opposition members would have continued to vote with the coalition,” Hadash-Ta’al faction said in a statement on Monday. Asked how nobody noticed the reservation ahead of time, a spokesman for Hadash-Ta’al chairman, MK Odeh, replied, “We’re asking the same question. Because it’s essentially the role of the opposition coordinator to update us on everything, and they clearly missed it.” The coordinator in question was Yesh Atid MK Meirav Ben-Ari, who sent a lengthy apology to fellow opposition MKs on WhatsApp, taking “full responsibility” for the mistaken vote.
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=33316
