Cabinet Approves NIS 2.6 Billion in Ministry Budget Cuts to Fund Defense | Israel Politics Post
Cabinet Approves NIS 2.6 Billion in Ministry Budget Cuts to Fund Defense
Nine days before the election, the government cut education, health and welfare budgets to pay for urgent defense procurement, while leaving coalition funds untouched, drawing sharp criticism from the opposition.
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By Israel Politics Post Staff·Published
A classroom set up for the first day of school in Jerusalem · Source: Yossi Zamir/Flash90, via The Times of Israel
The security cabinet signed off Sunday on NIS 2.6 billion in across-the-board cuts to ministry budgets, redirecting the money toward urgent defense procurement just nine days before the October 27 election, The Times of Israel reported. The roughly 4.9 percent reductions touch education, health, welfare, transportation and other ministries, while funds earmarked for coalition parties were left untouched.
Transportation absorbs the largest hit at NIS 435.1 million, followed by education at NIS 280 million and the National Security Ministry at NIS 225 million; health loses NIS 150 million, welfare NIS 140 million, and the Prime Minister's Office NIS 104 million. Officials described the money as going toward "classified procurement" for the defense establishment, with the details to go before the Ministerial Committee on Procurement.
Government legal advisers warned the cuts could meaningfully disrupt public services and cautioned that a government should tread carefully making such decisions so close to an election. Finance Ministry legal adviser David Kopel said less disruptive funding alternatives were available. Opposition leader Yair Lapid argued the defense spending was justified but should have come out of coalition funds instead, saying money "sitting in coalition funds" could otherwise buy Apache helicopters rather than go to "corrupt officials, draft dodgers and deserters."
Public-sector unions pushed back hard. The Israeli Association of Public Health Physicians warned the cuts would "harm public health and people's lives," while the Israel Union of Social Workers said the government was continuing "on the path of destruction of social services." The decision follows a separate NIS 1 billion allocation for Apache helicopters days earlier, bringing total new defense procurement spending past NIS 3.6 billion.
