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December 18, 2024 | 03:01 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Israeli lawmakers narrowly approved the 2025 state budget in early voting despite a revolt from one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition partners demanding he fire Israel’s attorney general, Reuters reported.
The 59-57 vote in the Knesset, or parliament, to pass the wartime austerity budget in the first of three readings underscored divisions within a coalition that relies heavily on ultra-Orthodox and right-wing parties.
Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and the six-seat ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit party voted against the budget, sparking a war of words with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the head of another right-wing party.
Ben-Gvir had pushed for Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara’s dismissal on the grounds that she opposed plans to overhaul Israel’s justice system and supported an independent investigation into Israel’s handling of the Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border raid led by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. He had asked for the issue to be raised at a cabinet meeting.
Ben-Gvir said in X that his faction would no longer be bound by coalition positions, including budget laws, and would operate independently.
Responding to Smotrich, he said the government must fire the attorney general in order to implement its policies. The right-wing government must reinstate him or face the possibility that he will bring down the government, Ben-Gvir wrote.
A month ago, in a letter to Netanyahu, Baharav-Miara asked the prime minister to consider firing Ben-Gvir, citing evidence that he allegedly directly interfered in police operations and politicized promotions within the police force, threatening his status outside politics.
If the issue is raised at Sunday’s cabinet meeting, “the crisis will be over,” Ben-Gvir added.
In a piece for X, Smotrich accused Ben-Gvir of irresponsibly allying with the opposition and Arab parties and putting their right-wing government in danger at a time of war.
Smotrich said Ben-Gvir and his party were jeopardizing the historic opportunity for further Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank and for the State of Israel itself with the Donald Trump administration set to move into the White House next month.
"We will continue to work for the Israeli people and for victory in the war, with or without Ben-Gvir," he wrote.
Netanyahu in September sought to strengthen his coalition, which has a 64-56 advantage in the Knesset, by bringing in opposition lawmaker Gideon Saar and his four-seat New Hope party, allowing him to rely less on ruling coalition members. Saar was named foreign minister last month.
Total spending in the 2025 budget is 756 billion shekels ($210 billion), with a deficit target set at 4.4% of gross domestic product. The budget includes spending cuts and tax increases of 37 billion shekels, needed to keep the deficit under control as war costs have soared. Defense spending will reach 108 billion shekels next year.
All three rating agencies have cut Israel’s credit rating this year because of the cost of the war, which has pushed the budget deficit to nearly 8% of GDP.
The budget will then go to the Knesset’s finance committee and other committees, where it could be amended. It is not expected to be fully approved until at least January. Until the budget is approved in 2025, the 2024 budget will be divided into 12 parts, with 1/12th allocated each month.
Failure to approve the budget by March 31 would trigger new elections.
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