Cabinet approves budget cut to fund Ben-Gvir's national guard

Israel's cabinet has approved an across-the-board 1.5% budget cut proposed by Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich in order to finance the NIS 1 billion required to establish the new national guard, which is being demanded by Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir. The national guard will have 1,800 personnel. This means the defense budget will be cut by NIS 285 million, the transport budget by NIS 103 million and the education budget by NIS 56 million. The across the board cut amounts to more than NIS 1 billion so that more money will be allocated to Ben-Gvir's other demands including extra money for Israel Police.

Ben-Gvir agrees to pause judicial overhaul

The establishment of the national guard was one of the conditions laid down by Ben-Gvir last week for dropping his opposition to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pausing the judicial overhaul.

The across the board budget cut is in addition to another 3% cut in the state budget for 2023-2024, which passed its first reading in the Knesset last week. The budget will amount to NIS 484 billion in 2023 and NIS 514 billion in 2024.

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on April 2, 2023.

Cabinet approves budget cut to fund Ben-Gvir's national guard

Israel's cabinet has approved an across-the-board 1.5% budget cut to finance the NIS 1 billion required to establish the national guard.

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