The Knesset Finance Committee passed the state budget for 2015-2016 last night. During the session, opposition Knesset members angrily walked out of the voting, claiming that they had not received explanations for some budget items. MK Micky Rosenthal (Zionist Union) said, "The Knesset Finance Committee is acting like a steamroller. Questions go unanswered, and no explanatory documentation is provided. There is no doubt that they are trying to conceal from the public information about the gifts that coalition members of Knesset have received."
Later, the opposition members of the committee returned and demanded that all the items that had been approved in their absence should be voted on again. Orly Levi-Abekasis (Yisrael Beitenu) said, "This is a disgrace for the Knesset; it's a coup."
This morning, in the Knesset plenum, the opposition will start a filibuster in advance of the approval of the budget at second and third readings.
During the Knesset Finance Committee session, it emerged that in order to ensure that the budget would pass, several members of Knesset received budgets for their own purposes, among them Bezalel Smotrich (Habayit Hayehudi), who received NIS 2 million "for preserving open areas in Judea and Samaria", Knesset Finance Committee chairman Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism), who received NIS 4.5 million for "preservation of religious services", and Miki Zohar (Likud), who received NIS 3 million for "Torah cultural projects". At the request of Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein (Likud), NIS 6 million was allocated to "religious and spiritual communications". NIS 26 million was allocated to "Jewish culture" and NIS 34 million to "informal Torah study" at the request of the United Torah Judaism party. Shas received NIS 8 million for "the Minister of Religious Affairs prize" and NIS 2 million for "fertility on the basis of Jewish law".
Opposition coordinator on the Knesset Finance Committee Erel Margalit (Zionist Union) said, "These funds are a political prostitute's hire, and they are 100% political survival; NIS 4.6 billion in coalition money in order to survive politically and neglect the periphery, Jerusalem, the north, small businesses, and young people in Israel. The main funds that the opposition at my initiative demanded were approved in the main budget - NIS 75 million for doctors in the periphery, NIS 170 million for low interest mortgages for those eligible, hundreds of millions for businesses in the south, NIS 16 million for orphans from terrorist attacks, and a commitment from the Knesset Finance Committee to reduce management fees on pension funds by 50%."
The state budget for 2015 will total NIS 383.86 billion, while the budget in 2016 will amount to NIS 424.81 billion.
Gafni said, ""I am proud of what the Committee has done in the Arrangements Law and the Budget Law. We are presenting the Knesset with an Arrangements Law and a Budget Law that respect the Finance Committee and the Knesset. A Budget and Arrangements Law that will benefit all citizens."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 16, 2015
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