by LILY GALILI
New budget boosts ultra-Orthodox schooling, projects promoting ‘Jewish identity’ and settlements at expense of most vulnerable sections of society
A few minutes after the Israeli parliament approved the budget for the next two years, a triumphant Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to announce: “It’s a great day for the people of Israel.”
It is not. It might be a great day for Netanyahu himself; it’s certainly a very bad day for most Israelis. The money allocations – 484bn shekels ($130.4bn), in 2023, 514bn shekels in 2024) solidify an ultra-nationalistic, orthodox Israel, forsaking even the appearance of social justice. Unless, of course, you consider food stamps for members of the ultra-orthodox Shas party social justice in 2023.
About 300 top economists, among them former senior Bank of Israel and Treasury officials, warned in a letter that this kind of budget poses an “existential threat to Israel’s future”.
As Arie Krampf, political economist at the Academic College of Tel Aviv Yaffo, notes, the parties within Netanyahu’s government gave themselves more money for political pursuits “at the expense of the weaker sections of Israeli society”.
“Civil expenditure in Israel is lower compared to other OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] countries. The new budget is a combination of neoliberalism and designated payments to coalition parties, with no growth mechanisms, which is bad news for the Israeli economy,” he told Middle East Eye
A short illustration: money allocated to political parties for their own projects reached 14bn shekels. In comparison, Israel’s collapsing public hospitals got just 12.4bn.
However, the budget is not only bad; it is also anti-democratic. Even before the government has managed to achieve its goal of fundamentally changing the Israeli political system through its controversial judicial reforms, the budget has already done it.
The new budget is today widely described as “looting the public treasury”. That is what headlines in Israel say, that is what all opposition leaders call it. Avigdor Lieberman, head of the opposition Yisrael Beiteinu party, defined it “a black stain in the history of Israel”.
This is only one way to look at it. In fact, the new budget is a more sophisticated way to secure long-term, far-right nationalistic education to future generations, maintaining conservative and reclusive orthodox communities and creating future voters infused with a hardline notion of the Jewish state.
Middle East Eye for more