Israel Redirects Part of Funding for Netanyahu's Coalition to War Effort

The Israeli Ministry of Finance announced today, Friday, that it will allocate approximately 1.6 billion shekels (440 million dollars) this year from the billions designated for the parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing coalition towards the war effort. According to senior economic experts and officials from Israel's central bank, the war with Hamas is expected to cost the government tens of billions of shekels, and they have urged Netanyahu to reduce unnecessary spending. They expressed concern last month regarding the government's plan to transfer nine billion shekels (2.2 billion dollars) to the extreme Jewish and right-wing parties that support the settlers, as part of an agreement Netanyahu made with them to form his ruling coalition. The Ministry of Finance's proposal implies a reduction of approximately 70 percent from the total of 2.5 billion shekels of funding for coalition partners still set to be disbursed in the 2023 budget. This funding has stirred considerable controversy as most of it is intended to encourage ultra-Orthodox Jewish men, who are exempt from mandatory military service, to remain outside the workforce.