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Knesset passes two-year budget
The Knesset last night passed a two-year budget covering 2017 and 2018 worth a total of £191bn.
Having been approved by the Knesset Finance Committee earlier this week, the budget and the accompanying Economic Arrangements Bill easily passed second and third readings yesterday by a vote of 63 in favour and 50 against.
Welcoming yesterday’s Knesset vote, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon said: “Today I am proud to present you with another budget and a strong, robust, stable and growing Israeli economy.”
He added: “[This] is a social and colour-blind budget. A budget to aid and assist the entire population.”
During a debate which stretched late into the night, Zionist Union head and opposition leader Isaac Herzog condemned the budget, saying it “contains no good news for the people of Israel”.
He added: “This is a hopeless budget with no solutions for Israelis’ daily economic problems… not for anyone, except for those who are close to [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and his partners.”
The budget sets net expenditure almost equally over the two years, with an extra £18bn allocated as a flexible revenue-dependent amount. The defence budget remains the largest component of the state’s overall budget, while the allocation set aside for the Education Ministry is the second largest. It also includes a controversial tax spearheaded by Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, which will be levied at those owning three or more properties.
The budget passed easily despite last-minute cuts for development in local authorities, which prompted a one-day strike across a range of municipal services yesterday, especially schools and kindergartens.
The cuts were designed to absorb the cost of relocating residents of the Amona outpost, establishing the new public broadcasting corporation, and building new schools in ultra-Orthodox communities. The strike ended yesterday after municipality heads and government officials agreed to resume negotiations on Sunday.