The Israeli government has approved a new two-year budget that solidifies the religious and settlement-friendly agenda of the ruling coalition, as thousands of protesters demonstrated against the spending package outside the Parliament building.
The 2023 and 2024 budgets were approved early Wednesday by a 64-56 vote, deadlocked by overnight debate and after weeks of negotiations.
The budgets are 484 billion shekels ($131 billion) for this year and 514 billion shekels ($139 billion) for next year, according to a parliament statement after the vote.
“This budget is good for all citizens of Israel,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in the statement.
“Left and right, religious, ultra-orthodox and secular, Druze, Arabs. Simply all citizens of Israel,” he said, apparently addressing criticism of the budgets, saying critics “want to overthrow the right-wing government and for that, everything is kosher.”
✔️ We won the elections
✔️ We have moved budget
✔️ Let’s continue 4 good years 🇮🇱
— Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) May 24, 2023
Translation: We won the elections, we passed the budget, we will continue for four more years.
Netanyahu announced the passage of the budgets in an upbeat tweet promising that his coalition government would continue on the same lines.
The budget may bring stability to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition but is likely to deepen divisions within Israel, as protesters protested its inflated allocations for ultra-Orthodox institutions at the expense of secular Israelis.
Tens of millions of dollars have been earmarked for extreme pro-settler parties.
On Monday, a major obstacle to passing the budget was cleared, with a pledge of $68 million made to the far-right Otzma Yehudit party for its settlement developments in the Negev and Galilee regions, the Times of Israel reported.
Smotrich has said he hopes to double the number of West Bank settlers in the near future.
The settlements will receive funds from the newly created “Arnuna Fund,” a mechanism in this year’s budget that aims to distribute municipal taxes that the settlements will not have to pay, said Amnon Bronfeld, spokesman for Communist Knesset member Ofer Cassif. Al Jazeera.
“The explanation is even more infuriating,” Bronfeld said. “The Department of Justice prohibited allocating funds from the settlements because it contradicts that [international] law, but allowed funds to be allocated to them even though it is also prohibited.”
He added that the settlements will also boost budgets in several areas, including roads and infrastructure, tourism and agriculture.
The budget will also increase funds for ultra-Orthodox men to study full-time at religious seminaries, waiving the requirement to work or serve in the military, which secular men are required to do. Ultra-Orthodox schools will also receive more money.
The new budget’s allocation of nearly $4 billion in discretionary funds to ultra-Orthodox and pro-colonial parties has even been criticized by the government’s own budget division.
Centrist opposition leader Yair Lapid denounced the budget as “a breach of contract with the citizens of Israel, which all of us, and our children and children, will still pay,” the news agency reported Reuters.
Tuesday night’s demonstrations against the budget came after months of sustained protests against Netanyahu’s proposed overhaul of the country’s judicial system, with people accusing the government of “looting” state funds.
