Against the background of budgetary transfers to religious institutions: The Students Union intends to appeal against the state budget, claiming that it transfers budgets without clear criteria for their distribution, in a manner that discriminates against students relative to other publics. The National Union of Students recently launched a struggle against the state budget, claiming that the Israeli government had abandoned the students, and now it seems that the struggle is reaching practical levels.
The petition, which was written, but has not yet been submitted, stated: "Recently, a number of government decisions have been passed that significantly increase the scope of funds granted by the government to religious institutions, without setting clear criteria for their distribution." It added: "The significance of these decisions is necessarily budgeting and direct support for students in religious institutions, while at the same time no increase has been made in the budget of institutions of higher education, which is eroding. And no parallel decision has been made regarding financial support for the student public." The student union claims that this is "a serious violation of the principle of equality, an infringement that does not meet the tests of proportionality in the limitations clause in the Basic Law: Man and His Liberty. Implicit in the moves is a clear and unequivocal preference for one specific sector over any other."
Campaign at the Ministry of Finance. Minister Smotrich (archive), photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Across-the-board cuts in higher education
The higher education budget in Israel will be NIS 2023.12 billion in 593, and in 2024 it is expected to rise to NIS 13.475 billion. The budget of government ministries, the higher education budget suffered an across-the-board cut—in 2023 the cut will be NIS 326 million, and in 2024 the amount of the cut will be NIS 112 million.
For some time now, the Student Union has been running a campaign titled "Student – Zero Exit in the State Budget," among other things, they demand: rewarding working students when they enter the workforce by expanding tax points, assistance in student tuition expenses by subsidizing English studies, assistance in student housing expenses by allocating a budget for building dormitories on campuses, and a significant increase in the budget for student assistance through scholarships from the Assistance Fund.
According to them, the student population in Israel, which numbers about 386,000, are forced to deal with many challenges, an onerous cost of living, an existence without very low income or income alongside studies, and daily economic survival, which, together with inflation in the economy, lead to difficult coping with the task of closing the month without neglecting studies.
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