After the crisis is resolved - the budget will be put to a vote tonight - voila! news

In the video: Budget discussions in the plenum: "My daughter doesn't deserve a budget because she didn't grow up on Noa Kirel?" (Knesset Channel)

After resolving the crises with Otzma Yehudit and Agudat Yisrael, the Knesset plenum will convene today (Tuesday) to approve the budget. Ahead of the vote, at 19:30 p.m., Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will convene a meeting with the coalition leaders.

Yesterday, Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir reached an agreement on Otzma Yehudit's demand to add hundreds of millions of shekels to the Ministry of the Negev and Galilee. Meanwhile, NIS 250 million will be allocated to the Ministry of the Negev and Galilee from budget surpluses of government ministries in 2023. In doing so, the parties put an end to the crisis over the issue, and Otzma Yehudit members pledged to support the budget.

Earlier yesterday, the prime minister also reached agreements with Agudat Israel chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf. The two agreed that NIS 250 million of the state budget would be transferred to Haredi educational institutions at the end of the year. That's almost half the amount the faction demanded. Thus, a solution to the crisis, which Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also attended, was achieved at the meeting, without the budget framework being breached, and without it being opened.

Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir reached agreements, NIS 250 million will be allocated to the Ministry of the Negev and Galilee (Photo: Knesset Spokesperson, Noam Moshkovitz)

In the evening, just before voting begins, the prime minister, finance minister, opposition leader and finance committee chairman will each speak for 10 minutes. The marathon voting will begin immediately after that and is expected to continue until tomorrow evening, unless the opposition removes some of its reservations and brings forward the final vote on approving the budget to noon or morning. The state budget stands at NIS 484 billion for 2023 and NIS 514 billion for 2024.

That's hundreds of votes in the plenum, late at night and early in the morning. In the past, there have been cases of Knesset members confused in voting, which created chaos for a coalition that had to amend the votes or move on with defeat against the opposition. This time, the coalition enjoys a majority of eight Knesset members against the opposition, assuming that all Knesset members vote in favor of the budget and do not abstain or oppose.

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Tags

• Itamar Ben-Gvir
• Benjamin Netanyahu
• Otzma Yehudit