Following the Cabinet’s approval of the 2025 state budget, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a government meeting on Friday that the budget would be increased, if required.
“We convened [here] for an important, difficult, but necessary budget in a year of war,” the premier said, sitting next to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and other government officials.
“I would like to say that the budget for the Defense Ministry does not include the enhancing components of Nagel Commission’s recommendations, which I believe will conclude on a serious scale. But of course, that is the Commission’s decision” to be made in mid-December, Netanyahu noted.
“This means that we will be able to add the enhancing components of the Nagel Commission to the budget of the Defense Ministry. We may be able to add it to the present budget, before its passing in January, and if needed, we will pass another budget,” the prime minister said.
According to the Prime Minister’s Office, the Nagel Commission, formed last August, was established to formulate “recommendations on the force building needs [of the Israel Defense Forces] and the security budget in the coming decade.”
The budget bill must be passed by the Knesset by April 2025 for the coalition to remain intact and avoid early elections.
After approving the bill at the executive branch, Smotrich said: “The state budget for 2025 will be approximately 607.4 billion shekels [$162.6 billion]. Alongside the budget, the government approved budgetary adjustment measures totaling about 37 billion shekels [$10 billion].”
The budget has elicited criticism for its deep cuts across the fields of health, education, social services and transportation.
Proposed budget cuts include: 275 million shekels (~$74 million) from the Health Ministry; 200 million shekels (~$54 million) from the Agriculture Ministry; 113 billion shekels (~$30 million) from the education budget; and 100 million shekels (~$27 million) from the Welfare and Social Affairs Ministry.
Additionally, the budget says that five government offices will be closed, with the list to be drawn up by the Prime Minister’s Office.
Opposition leader and lawmaker Yair Lapid lambasted the government, saying it had “passed a promiscuous budget. He will raise the expenses of every family in Israel by 20,000 shekels [~$5,330] a year while simultaneously handing out 10 billion shekels [~$2.66 billion] to unnecessary government offices. They have lost their shame.”
In the government’s meeting on Thursday, Netanyahu said: “It is clear that the war has costs, very heavy costs, not just in lives but also materially, and this is self-evident. But for a country that has been attacked on seven fronts, the Israeli economy has shown extraordinary resilience, which is a result of the free economy that we have built here, the sense of initiative instilled in our people and the rallying of our citizens.”
