Smotrich refuses to cut NIS 450m Judea & Samaria budget line

A Facebook post by Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich on Sunday is perceived in the corridors of the Ministry of Finance as political interference in professional opinions prepared by the ministry’s senior official on the coalition funds.

“I hope that in the coming day we will finish all the procedures and the terrible bureaucracies burdening us by officials and legal advisers and the entire budget will be approved,” – Smotrich wrote to his followers, referring to the delays in the approval process of the revised 2023 budget, which in turn is also delaying work on the 2024 budget.

Smotrich attacked the same “officials and legal advisers,” who were mentioned no less than five times in the post he made following criticism he received in his management of the budget preparations. He accused them of “piling up difficulties on the budget for the security components in Judea and Samaria settlements” and even claimed that they “had probably decided that the blood of settlers is less important.”

The dirty washing is being aired for all to see

So who are these anonymous officials and legal advisors that Smotrich is publicly attacking? Sources in the Ministry of Finance says that Smotrich is furious with the Ministry of Finance Budgets Division headed by Yogen Gardos and Ministry of Finance legal advisor Adv. Asi Messing. They angered the minister by delaying submitting the opinion required to approve budget items in the coalition funds designated by Smotrich for Judea and Samaria.

The items in dispute total NIS 450 million. According to the budget bill, they are intended for “Judea and Samaria strengthening and alertness”, “core missions”, “security components in rural regions” and other vague definitions that do not specify where exactly the money will go. Smotrich seeks to approve them through the Ministry of Interior budget and Minister Orit Strook’s Ministry of Settlements and National Missions, which serves as the party conduit in Smotrich’s faction for transferring coalition funds beyond the Green Line.

Smotrich claims that two months of war “has completely changed the way security is seen in Judea and Samaria as well… and not one shekel has yet been transferred for security needs of the Judea and Samaria settlements.”

If this claim is true, then this would be an abandonment by the state, with a respectable share of responsibility to the Minister of Finance, who is also minister in the Ministry of Defense in charge of the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria.

However, Ministry of Finance insiders explain that the picture that Smotrich paints is distorted. Firstly, there is NIS 80 million in the basic budget for security needs in Judea and Samaria. Secondly, money from the army was transferred for the matter and thirdly, where exactly did the guns that Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir handed out go?

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on December 11, 2023.

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2023.