Cabinet cuts Health Ministry during COVID-19 crisis, funds new ministries

Gideon Sa'ar: Do not make Norwegian Law permanent

By LAHAV HARKOV, GIL HOFFMAN
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz attend a cabinet meeting on Sunday (photo credit: HAIM ZACH/GPO)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz attend a cabinet meeting on Sunday
(photo credit: HAIM ZACH/GPO)
The cabinet approved the establishment of the following new ministries: alternate prime minister, water resources, higher education, settlement affairs, cyber and national digital matters, minorities, ministry in the defense ministry and ministry in the prime minister’s office.
In order to fund those ministries, the cabinet unanimously voted in favor of an across-the-board 1.5% budget cut, resulting in a reduction in the staff of 46 ministries and government authorities.
The Prime Minister’s Office, Finance Ministry and Education Ministry lost the most positions, with 32 cut in each. The Defense Ministry had the greatest buget cut, at NIS 14.02 million for 27 workers.
Some of the areas were cut despite the acute need for them during the coronavirus crisis, like the Health Ministry, which lost 23 staffing positions and NIS 4.3m., the Employment Service, which was cut by NIS 3.2m. and 13 jobs, and welfare, in which NIS 3.6m. and 15 positions were slashed.
Welfare Minister Itzik Shmuly called the cut “unacceptable,” adding that “at this tine, not only can we not reduce welfare services, we must add to them. The broad cuts severely hurt the ability for social workers to respond to the coronavirus crisis and take care of domestic violence situations.” 
The only minister to publicly fight against the planned cuts was Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, who called it “extremely unreasonable” in a letter to Finance Minister Israel Katz last week. Of the planned 16 staffers cut, six were meant to be postings abroad. Ashkenazi also criticized the Finance Ministry for sending their proposal on the eve of Shavuot, not giving ministries a full workday to prepare before the cabinet vote.
Ashkenazi reached an agreement with the Foreign Ministry by which the 16 positions cut were all local, rather than posts abroad, and the budget cut was reduced from NIS 11.4m. to NIS 4.8m.
Legal obstacles prevented the establishment of the Communal Strengthening and Development Ministry, which will likely require legislation to be passed by the Knesset. As such, the government formed an inter-ministerial committee for the task.
Among the issues with Orly Levy-Abecassis’ new ministry is that it includes areas such as the Anti-Drug Authority and the Violence-Free City Project, which were established by law as subordinate to the Public Security Ministry, KAN reported.
One of the proposed solutions was for police officers in the areas under her authority to remain part of the Public Security Ministry, while the non-police workers, such as social workers, would be part of the Communal Strengthening and Development Ministry.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid lamented on twitter: “The government transfered half a billion shekels today – not to the self-employed, not to the unemployed, not to small businesses – but to itself, to unnecessary ministries like the Water Resources Ministries and the Ministry for Nonexistant Communities and unnecessary deputy ministers that no one needs.”
Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry told the Knesset Law and Constitution Committee on Sunday that the Expanded Norwegian Law advanced by the government would cost taxpayers NIS 22.5m. a year. The bill is expected to pass in its first reading in the committee on Monday.
Likud MK Gideon Sa’ar said in the 8-hour meeting of the committee that the bill should be enacted only for the current Knesset and not permanently.
The Expanded Norwegian Law would enable five ministers in Blue and White and two in other coalition parties to quit the Knesset and be replaced by the next candidates on each party’s list. If the ministers quit the cabinet, they could return to the Knesset at the expense of the new MKs. It would give new MKs in factions that have split 24 hours to decide which one to join. The legislation could allow candidates of Yesh Atid and Telem, which are in the opposition, to instead join Blue and White in the coalition, solving the problem of Blue and White not having enough MKs who are not ministers to do the party’s legislative work in the Knesset.
“The political aspects that are the basis of the bill cannot be ignored,” Sa’ar said, noting that the current political needs may not apply to future Knessets, and therefore should not be set into permanent law.
When a smaller version of the bill was passed for the 20th Knesset, it applied only to that Knesset. But the head of the Law Committee, UTJ MK Yakov Asher, who himself entered the 20th Knesset thanks to the bill in 2016, said it should be permanent. 
Sa’ar said that with “a very large government,” such a bill could add balance, help the legislative branch oversee the executive and strengthen the Knesset’s ability to legislate. 
Opposition MKs took turns blasting the bill. Mickey Levy (Yesh Atid) said it was unfair that more Blue and White candidates would enter the Knesset than other parties, that it would apply to deputy ministers, and that the MKs who would enter the Knesset could be replaced by the ministers who quit for them if they rebel.
“This bill is the result of a cynical, wasteful, improper political deal,” said Meretz MK Yair Golan. “No honest and clean MK could support this bill.”


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Norwegian law