The Knesset approved an increase in the 2025 state budget by over NIS 30 billion toward the country’s defense budget during a plenum vote on Monday.
The bill passed its third reading with 55 in favor and 50 against, following a full day of speeches from the coalition and opposition members.
With the vote passed, an additional NIS 30.8 billion will be allocated to the Defense Ministry, National Insurance Institute, various security-related expenses, and for payment of interest and fees.
The proposal for the bill states that an increase of the defense budget by NIS 28.8 billion is due to Operation Gideon’s Chariots in Gaza, along with Operation Rising Lion in Iran.
The vote comes after marathon Finance Committee meetings on the matter, which began after the bill passed its first reading in the plenum at the start of September.
Various opposition MKs strongly objected to the decision to go ahead with the budget increase.
Smotrich pushes for bill to pass
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich pushed for the bill to pass. In the plenum, he underscored that the budget was specifically for war-related expenses, saying that "there's not a single shekel" that would not be directed to anything else.
In a prior Finance Committee meeting this month, Smotrich also said the additional budget would be used “solely for war-related defense expenses, no coalition projects.”
To raise the budget for defense, funds will be allocated from various other ministries, leading to an across-the-board cut, the proposal stated. The proposal would also reportedly cause NIS 1.6 billion of the increased budget to go toward humanitarian aid in Gaza.
When attending a Finance Committee meeting to prepare the bill for its second and third reading, Smotrich stated that the initial 2025 state budget was prepared for various situations, but “the successes, with enormous help from above, resulted in higher costs.”
Ahead of the plenum vote, the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) faction Hadegel HaTorah announced that its MKs would vote against the defense budget increase because of a lack of “progress on the most essential matters for Judaism.”
Smotrich responded that it was “total irresponsibility to harm the defense budget during a war.”
“I call on the ultra-Orthodox Knesset members, come to your senses. While tens of thousands of reservists are spending the holidays away from their homes, you do not undermine the war and Israel’s security,” he added.
The coalition and opposition currently have a tied 60 seats each after the haredi party United Torah Judaism (UTJ) left the coalition in July, following the controversy surrounding negotiations on the haredi conscription law proposal. Shas, the additional haredi party, also left the government for the same reason, though it remained in the coalition.
The Shas Party stated ahead of the vote that it would vote in favor of the budget increase.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) and Blue and White head MK Benny Gantz were absent from the vote.