The Knesset on Thursday approved a 2021-2022 state budget, the country’s first ratified spending package in more than three years.
Lawmakers passed the 14-month first-reading budget bill, voting 59-54 on the 2021 budget and 59-53 on 2022. Votes for final approval are due in November .
4 See the gallery
Coalition members celebrate in the Knesset the approval of the state budget 2021-2022 in first hearing
(Photo: Knesset)
The Knesset session was a new test for Naftali Bennett’s multi-party coalition government, which took over in mid-June after ousting veteran Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Bennett exercises a meager majority in parliament.
The budget allocated NIS 432.3 billion ($ 134.858 billion) to spending 2121 and NIS 452.5 billion shekels by 2022, including funds to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
The budget deficit was projected at 6.8% of gross domestic product in 2021 and 3.9% in 2022, after reaching 11.6% in 2020.
Bennett and Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman had been under pressure from ministers and lawmakers annoyed by some planned reforms, while others sought more funding.
Two years of political stalemate and four elections had left Israel still using a prorated version of the 2019 state budget approved in March 2018.
Netanyahu’s refusal last year to agree on a two-year budget for 2020 and 2021 helped overthrow his coalition.
Earlier on Thursday, the Knesset passed the State Budget Arrangements Act in its first parliamentary reading, according to a Channel 12 report.
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Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Ra’am chief Mansour Abbas shake hands during Knesset hearing on state budgets
(Photo: Yoav Dudkevitch)
The Arrangements Act is a government-sponsored bill that is presented to the Knesset each year along with the state budget law. It incorporates government bills and legislative amendments necessary for the government to comply with its economic policy.
The coalition had to amend the bill to appease left-wing coalition member Meretz, who opposed a regulatory reform proposed by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s Yamina party included in the Fear Arrangements Bill which would benefit businesses and industry at the expense of public health and the environment.
In statements to the Knesset plenary, Netanyahu violated the budget proposal, which he described as “bad.”
“The budget presented today is bad. It includes punishments [on the public] and tax hikes in contrast to your promises. You are hurting farmers, the weaker populations, the periphery and the middle class, ”Netanyahu said, behind a closed glass balcony where he quarantines after returning from abroad.
Likud President has also impacted against the coalition by billions promised to member of the Ra’am coalition, an Islamist party that supports Palestinian independence, and an agreement recently announced by Defense Minister Benny Gantz to endow the Palestinian Authority of NIS 500 million ($ 155 million) in an attempt to save its economy as it finds itself in the period of loss.
“You have given a fortune to [Ra’am leader] Mansour Abbas i [Palestinian President] Mahmoud Abbas because he depends on the 53 billion NIS he promised Ra’am. “