by Eliav Breuer
The impasse developed last week after Agudat Yisrael, the Hassidic faction within UTJ, demanded over NIS 600 million additional coalition funds.
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LIKUD LEADER BENJAMIN Netanyahu shakes hands with
United Torah Judaism MK Yitzhak Goldknopf in the Knesset last week. If
Netanyahu’s promise of a full budget for all haredi educational
institutions is realized, the already-low incentive to provide core
studies will disappear entirely.
(photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)
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Agudat Yisrael will receive NIS 250 million in additional funding for its religious academy (yeshiva) students, the Likud announced in a statement on Monday, marking the end of a dispute between the Hassidic faction, the Likud and the finance ministry that could have toppled the government.
The impasse developed last week after Agudat Yisrael, the Hassidic faction within the Ashkenazi-haredi United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party, demanded over NIS 600 million additional coalition funds in order to cover retroactively the costs of its yeshivot and education systems since the beginning of 2023. It currently is only set to receive funding for 2024, but the party claims that funding 2023 was part of the coalition agreement between it and the Likud during coalition negotiations in December.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionist Party) refused to reopen the budget bills. The solution, according to the Likud's statement, provides NIS 250 million in one-time stipends to yeshiva students for January-June 2023, without needing to reopen the budget. It is unclear what the source of these funds are.
The party will receive no additional funding, and any additional budgetary demands by Agudat Yisrael must be met via UTJ's own coalition funds, according to the agreement.
The agreement effectively ended the largest threat to the budget's passage, and thus to the government's existence, as failure to pass the national budget by next Monday (May 29) would automatically dissolve the Knesset and bring on a new election.
The Knesset Plenum is seen empty ahead of the swearing-in of Israel's
37th government, on December 29, 2022. (credit: NOAM MOSCOWITZ/KNESSET
SPOKESMAN'S OFFICE)Knesset begins discussing state budget
The debate in the Knesset plenum over the budget began on Monday at 9:00 a.m. and is scheduled to last until Tuesday evening at 8:30 p.m., a total of 35 and a half hours straight. During this time the plenum will debate the package of seven laws that make up the national budget. MKs will not remain in the plenum the entire time, but will rotate in and out in order to rest.
Beginning on Tuesday evening at approximately 9:00 p.m., the plenum will begin voting on the second reading of the bills, which will include over 800 votes, as every clause of the budget bills must be approved separately. Once this ends, the plenum will hold a third and final reading of the bills, after which the plenum will vote to approve them in their entirety. By passing this vote, the bills become law.
The coalition hopes to pass the entire package into law by the Shavuot holiday, which begins on Thursday evening. However, it scheduled another plenum session at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, May 28, in case this is delayed.
Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer penned a letter to Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara after the agreement between the Likud and Agudat Yisrael was announced, arguing that the agreement was illegal. According to Forer, budget decisions cannot be made without a budgetary source. The agreement between Likud and Agudat Yisrael to fill budget gaps by using "future leftover funds" did not point to a clear budgetary source and therefore against the law.
Forer demanded that the attorney-general convey her opinion on the matter, and, if necessary, direct Israel's Accountant General not to respect the order.
Eliav Breuer
Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/article-743827
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