The right-wing government is once again delaying the submission of the budget to the plenum. This is in further violation of the budget law and in violation of the Knesset’s duty to discuss it. According to the government’s decision (which is against the law), the budget for 2024 was supposed to be submitted on Sunday this week. But according to a publication in News 12, the budget will be submitted to the plenary only next week. The postponement will leave the Knesset less than 12 days to debate the budget on its hundreds of pages and thousands of sections.
According to “The Marker”, the professional staff in the budget department completed the work on the budget proposal on January 25, and it was supposed to be placed on the Knesset’s table at the beginning of this week. It should be noted that according to the amended state economy law, the budget was supposed to be submitted on January 20, in order to give the Knesset 30 days to discuss the budget before the required date for its approval – February 19. If a revised budget is not approved by this date, the law states that an automatic horizontal cut will be made based on the original 2024 budget, approved before the war. This is a cut of approximately 67 billion shekels, which will lead to the immediate paralysis of government ministries.
But if the budget is ready, why wasn’t it put on the Knesset’s table? The current delay is intended to allow the completion of legal work regarding some of the budget items, including coalition items. Finance Minister Smotrich (religious Zionism) requests these to be transferred as part of the revised budget law and not only through reserve clauses which will be discussed by the finance committee later. In other words: Smotrich wants to hide from the public the billions earmarked for settlements and ultra-Orthodox education, which will now be an integral part of the budget and not additions within the framework of the coalition agreements that need to be discussed individually.
damage to health
Some believed that the delay in submitting the budget for Knesset approval originated from the desire to correct the distortion in the neoliberal budget proposal. The one approved by the government includes large additions to the army and the occupation and significant harm to welfare, health and all services to the citizen. A lot of criticism was leveled at the budget proposal as approved by the ministers (cf. a series of articles on the subject published in the last issues of “This is the Way”). Minor corrections were indeed made – such as canceling the cut in resources for the public libraries.
But the 2024 budget does not bring good news for the citizens of Israel. One of the examples is in the field of public health. Although in its first version the harm to health was more significant, and the Minister of Health and the Director General of the Ministry did succeed in reducing this harm, but it is still a budget that is bad for health. This is stated by Prof. Danny Pilak in a position paper recently published by the Edva Center.
Privatization of the milk droplets
Prof. Filak points to a number of failures in the health budget for this year, among them – a payment of NIS 35 for each visit to mental health clinics. The meaning of the step is a real harm to the accessibility of mental health services for the low-income strata, including workers and their families. Although pension recipients and known mentally ill persons will be exempt from paying this service fee, the research literature clearly indicates that many of those entitled to this type of exemption do not take advantage of it.
Another point is – a cut of over one hundred million shekels in the Ministry of Health’s headquarters budget. The government and treasury officials claim that this is about streamlining and reducing bureaucracy. “The truth is different. This is a cut in a variety of functions performed by the ministry: supervision of health insurance funds, supervision of drugs and mental health, public health and health education. Unlike many unnecessary ministries established by this government, the Ministry of Health is an essential ministry. There are no ‘fats’ in it. , and a cut in its budget will translate into damage to the health of all of us,” wrote Prof. Pilak.
More in the health budget: the future of the milk drops operated by the state. The government and the treasury want to cut their budget. To this end, it was decided that a committee would be set up to discuss the drops of milk. This vague wording hints at the desire to go back and privatize the drops of milk, as was done in the past with the student health service, as another way to cut the state budget at the expense of the babies’ health.
The 2024 budget also includes a 15% cut in funds intended to reduce the budgetary gaps between Jewish and Arab citizens. The meaning of the cut is damage to the social conditions that define health. Since the establishment of the state, as a result of continuous discrimination and exclusion, the health indicators of the Arab citizens are worse than those of the Jewish citizens. The gap in the conditions that define health is a major reason for these differences. The cut in funds intended for the Arab citizens is much higher than the horizontal cut of 5%, it will therefore lead to damage to their health.
More on the subject:
The discussion in the government on the state budget for 2024 (screenshot: L.A.M.)