A record level of coalition funds expected to benefit the government will be approved in the 2026 state budget amid the war, MK Vladimir Beliak (Yesh Atid) told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.
He also criticized the government, saying that it had failed to compensate employees financially impacted by the war.
If the state budget is not approved in all three readings by next week, when the fiscal year closes at the end of the month, the Knesset will automatically dissolve, and elections will be called.
As a member of the Knesset’s Finance Committee who has taken part in the numerous discussions ahead of the vote, Beliak said it was “a bad budget.”
“There’s no real good news in it for the public, certainly not for the working public,” he told the Post.
Vote could take place this week
Beliak said the high-stakes vote could take place at the end of this week. He also noted that it was on an even tighter deadline than usual, with Pesach falling immediately after this year’s required passage deadline for the state budget.
“There is a record high in coalition funds – NIS 6 billion – which essentially go to sectoral needs, mainly benefiting sectors close to the finance minister and the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community,” he said.
An updated state budget was passed in the Knesset plenum in its first reading last week. It added NIS 32b. to the defense budget due to war expenses and raised the country’s deficit ceiling so that the total does not exceed 5.1% of GDP.
The updated defense budget totals about NIS 143b, following the additions, according to the Finance Ministry, bringing the overall state budget to about NIS 699b.
Millions allocated for West Bank settlements
When raising the state budget, nearly NIS 6 billion in coalition funds were approved for 2026, with hundreds of millions of shekels directed to haredi institutions as part of the proposal. Millions of shekels were also allocated for settlements in Judea and Samaria.
“Beyond that, there was also an attempt to allocate another nearly NIS 5.8 billion,” Beliak said, explaining that the government tried to remove legal oversight from the sum.
He said that the opposition and his Yesh Atid Party had identified the government’s move in the Finance Committee and prevented it by ensuring that a legal mechanism was applied to those funds.
“They [the funds] are still in the budget, but now they are under a legal mechanism that ensures they go toward civilian needs during the war, not other purposes. That happened thanks to our exposure and demand,” Beliak explained.
Regarding the budget as a whole, he noted that “there is a lot of coalition funding there.”
“More broadly, as in previous years under this government, there is a clear preference for private haredi education over the state education system,” Beliak continued. “This has wide implications, since haredi educational institutions often do not teach core subjects.”
During the state budget’s first reading in the Knesset, haredi parties – Shas and United Torah Judaism – had threatened to vote against it if they did not receive various concessions. This caused a crisis within Netanyahu’s coalition until agreements were reached and the budget ultimately passed its first reading.
Lack of framework for employee compensation
Beliak also strongly criticized the government’s lack of a framework for compensating employees financially impacted by the war. This includes parents who are unable to work as schools have been shut down. Small businesses, such as those in the entertainment or tourism field, have also been affected.
“We are now on day 22 or 23 of the war, and there is still no compensation plan. No one will receive money, I assume, until May,” he said. “Here, the government has completely failed. The lack of preparedness is glaring.”
Beliak noted that Israel should have been more prepared after last June’s 12 Day War.
"Just eight months ago, we were in a similar situation, and instead of publishing a compensation plan in the first days of the war, legislating it, and providing advance payments, we are now in the fourth week with nothing happening,” the MK said.
“That’s the major failure; people simply aren’t receiving compensation.”