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Two weeks remain for final approval of the state budget for 2024-2023, and coalition partners continue to make it difficult to pass it.
Meanwhile, to Walla! It was learned that Chairman of Torah Judaism and Minister of Housing and Construction Yitzhak Goodknopf on Monday expressed his demand to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to receive about half a billion shekels for ultra-Orthodox education, according to Goldknopf, as part of what was promised to his party in the coalition agreement they signed with the Likud. In other words, Goldknopf's demand to receive these funds is in addition to the coalition funds estimated at a total of NIS 13.6 billion.
Goldknopf demanded to receive some of the funds in question already in the current school year, and another part retroactively. The demand of the chairman of Torah Judaism is that NIS 217 million be transferred to ultra-Orthodox exemption institutions, some of which do not teach 400% core studies, and another NIS <> million to be transferred retroactively to yeshiva students and Avrachim.
Sources in Torah Judaism addressed the issue and told Walla!: "There are no new demands here, everything is in the coalition agreements. We only insist that what was promised be given and fulfilled."
Goldknopf's demand from Netanyahu: about half a billion shekels for ultra-Orthodox education (Photo: Image processing, Reuven Castro)
Minister of the Negev, Galilee and National Resilience, Yitzhak Wasserlauf of Otzma Yehudit, also expressed his displeasure with what he called an "unfair distribution" of the state budget. "It's easy for Smotrich to negotiate with himself," he said. "Judaizing the Galilee has been neglected and it is impossible to save the situation without the budget."
"The important task of Judaizing the Negev and Galilee is neglected. How do we do it without money? In the heart of the Galilee today there are only 14% Jews, and how did this happen? A Bedouin or Arab discharged soldier who is discharged from the IDF is entitled to a 90 percent discount in the heart of the Galilee on the ground. Why is a Jewish discharged soldier who wants to buy land in the Misgav Regional Council for that matter, why is he not entitled to the same discounts? The steps we will take is to subsidize land for discharged soldiers equally. I didn't ask to take away the benefits from them, but apply it to Jews as well. That's why I need a budget to save the situation," he added.
More in Walla!
Haredi Education and the Jewish Identity Authority: The Cabinet Will Approve the Distribution of Coalition Funds Today
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"It's easy for Smotrich to negotiate with himself." Wasserlauf (Photo: official website, Photo: Assi Efrati, GPO)
On Sunday, the government approved the distribution of coalition funds totaling NIS 13.6 billion for 2024-2023. According to the proposal, the two-year state budget approved at the end of the month will include NIS 5.7 billion in 2023 and NIS 7.9 billion in 2024, which will be distributed mainly to sectoral needs of the ultra-Orthodox, settlers and national religious, such as increasing the budget for yeshivas, support for ultra-Orthodox and state religious education, and budgets for religious services, ancestral graves, the conversion system, the establishment of MK Avi Maoz's Jewish Identity Authority, and the Shas food stamp program.
In accordance with the commitments that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made to his partners in the coalition negotiations that preceded the formation of the government.
According to the distribution of coalition funds, among other things, close to NIS 4 billion will be transferred to the yeshiva budget over the next two years, NIS 1.18 billion to the salaries of teaching staff in Haredi educational institutions, and half a billion NIS will be transferred to the Ministry of Jerusalem and Tradition of MK Meir Frosh. More than 700 million shekels will be transferred to Minister Orit Strock's Ministry of Settlement, 450 million shekels will be transferred to the young settlement, 285 million shekels to Maoz and the Jewish Identity Authority that he demanded to be established in the Prime Minister's Office. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir will receive NIS 1.3 billion to strengthen national security, out of the NIS 9 billion he claimed he was promised as a budget supplement.
NIS 13.6 billion to be distributed mainly for sectoral needs of the ultra-Orthodox, settlers and national religious. Netanyahu and Smotrich (Photo processing, Jonathan Zindel, Flash 90)
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Usually, the budgetary commitments in coalition negotiations are accompanied by consultation with the Ministry of Finance, but unusually, Prime Minister Netanyahu did not consult or update the Budget Department on the promises he distributed to the coalition partners, and they were not part of the process.
Unusually, the distribution of coalition funds was not brought to the cabinet for approval together with the budget proposal at the end of February, and was brought to the cabinet table only on Sunday, two weeks before the deadline for final approval of the budget in its second and third readings in the Knesset.
The professional echelon in the Ministry of Finance opposes the distribution of coalition funds. In addition to the Budget Department, the Chief Economist warned last week that government decisions to increase the Haredi education budget, the yeshiva budget, and the food stamp program are expected to lead to a decline in the earning potential of Haredi men and their integration into the labor market, and may harm the growth of the Israeli economy. The Shas food distribution plan also raises legal opposition in light of the criteria for distributing the benefit, which was detailed in an opinion by Finance Ministry Attorney General Assi Messing that was forwarded to ministers.
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- Itzhak Goldknopf
- Benjamin Netanyahu