The government decided in May '23, as part of the coalition agreements with the Religious Zionist Party, to add an additional budget for resilience centers in Judea and Samaria only, according to a new report by the Adva Center. This is despite the fact that the rate of anxiety victims in Judea and Samaria is significantly lower than the rate of anxiety victims in the south, and despite the great shortage of mental health therapists throughout the country and the cry of the heads of municipalities in the south – even before Black Saturday – about underfunding for their resilience centers.
The additional budget for the resilience centers in Judea and Samaria increased the budget of the resilience centers there by 17% of the total budget of the resilience centers in the country, and in total the budget of the resilience centers in Judea and Samaria now constitutes 32.4% of the total budget of the resilience centers throughout the country.
The State Comptroller warned
At the time of the October 14 Hamas attack, there were <> resilience centers operating throughout the country – five in the Gaza envelope, one in Netivot, one in Ashkelon, four in Judea and Samaria, two in the north, and one in Rahat – serving the Bedouin community. The resilience centers are operated by private providers that have won tenders and the associations enter into service agreements with mental health therapists. Resilience centers (with the exception of the Resilience Center in Rahat) provide services to local authorities and their residents affected by anxiety as a result of security incidents.
Direct hit on house in Kiryat Shmona | Kiryat Shmona Municipality Spokesperson's Office
The State Comptroller has already warned in the past that the establishment of resilience centers, their operation, budgeting and government control over them are conducted without advance planning and without government inclusion. Most of the budget for the resilience centers comes from pooling resources from various government ministries, as determined in government decisions made every budget year and transferred to the Ministry of Health, as well as from the National Insurance Institute, which partially finances the treatments provided at the resilience centers for anxiety victims.
The rate of anxiety victims in previous years in Judea and Samaria is significantly lower:
About 11% compared to about 75% (!) in the south of the country
In May '21, the State Comptroller recommended that the Ministry of Health and the inter-ministerial steering committee map the needs of local authorities in conflict zones in the south that do not have resilience centers and examine the provision of relevant solutions and ways of cooperating with the authorities. A year later, in August '22, Lapid's government passed a decision instructing the steering committee to formulate a plan to increase national resilience within 120 days. The plan was supposed to relate, inter alia, to the establishment of resilience centers in other authorities and areas, in accordance with professional criteria formulated by the steering committee.
Judea and Samaria (archive), photo: Reuters
One-third of the budget - for Judea and Samaria
However, the government changed and the formulation of the plan was delayed. Only on October 30 of this year, three weeks after Black Saturday, did the Ministry of Health's Tenders Committee approve the contract with an external consultant to finish writing and editing the national plan for the steering committee. In the meantime, according to the government's decision in May '23 and the website of the Religious Zionist Party, which published its list of achievements, the government approved a budget increase for resilience centers in Judea and Samaria only.
The budget for the 14 resilience centers for '23 was NIS 26.1 million, pursuant to a government decision made by the Lapid government in August '22. In accordance with that government decision, government funding was supposed to be divided among the resilience centers, so that 47% were allocated to the Gaza envelope, 17% to the West Bank, 12% to the Western and Eastern Galilee, 10% to Ashkelon, 8% to Netivot and 6% to the Bedouin center in the south.
With the establishment of the current government and within the framework of the coalition agreements, it was decided, as noted, to add almost NIS 6 million to the resilience centers in Judea and Samaria in '23 and NIS 4 million in '24. Thus, in effect, this budget increase raises the budget of the resilience centers in Judea and Samaria in 23 from 17% of the total budget of the country's resilience centers to 32.4%. Currently, the budget of the resilience centers in the Gaza envelope constitutes 38% of the total budget, in the Eastern and Western Galilee it constitutes 9%, in Ashkelon 8%, in Netivot 6% and in Rahat 5%.
Damage from rocket shrapnel in a house in Sderot. Three people sustained minor injuries, in addition to two panic injuries, Photo: Yehuda Peretz
Budgeting for mental health treatments - not due to political pressures
Previous reports by the State Comptroller collected by the Adva Institute indicate that there is no recommendation by professionals regarding the expansion of the activity of resilience centers in Judea and Samaria, and that the rate of anxiety victims in previous years in Judea and Samaria is significantly lower: about 11% compared to about 75% (!) in the south of the country. In addition, data from the Knesset Research and Information Center for the years 2018-2020 indicate that the rate of anxiety victims treated in Judea and Samaria was lower than the rate of the budget earmarked for them for '23. Nevertheless, the coalition agreements, as noted, added a budget only to the resilience centers in Judea and Samaria.
Dr. Yuval Livnat, CEO of the Adva Center and author of the report: "The state must make mental health treatments accessible to victims of anxiety as a result of security incidents, regardless of their place of residence. Precisely for this reason, one must wonder what was behind the decision to add a budget specifically to the resilience centers in Judea and Samaria and to them alone. The allocation of budgets for mental health treatments for anxiety victims must be done in a professional and practical manner, and God forbid it should be carried out by virtue of political pressure from one sector or another, or its representatives in the Knesset."
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