Yesh Atid to proceed with no-confidence vote over 'shameless' budget

The opposition party Yesh Atid announced on Sunday that it would move forward on Monday with a motion of no-confidence in Israel’s government, due to what it claimed was the government’s decision to advance a new proposal for Israel’s 2024 budget that was “political, irresponsible, and shameless.”

“We call on all factions in the [Knesset] and members of the government and coalition who believe, as we do, that the proposed list of priorities are defective and harm Israel’s working and productive majority, and that Israel needs a change – to support the proposal,” the party said in a statement.

Yesh Atid and other opposition parties have criticized numerous aspects of the budget since it was first approved in Israel’s cabinet on January 15, including that the budget did not redirect to the war effort billions of shekels in coalition funding earmarked for the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) school system, parts of which do not teach core secular studies; that it does not heed a proposal by finance ministry officials to shut down six government ministries not essential to the war effort; and that it does not include enough growth engines in order to kick-start the economy once the war ends.

A budget that will allow for victory?

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, however, have praised the budget proposal, with Netanyahu saying on January 18 that the budget provided “enormous” funding for the war, which will “enable the army and security forces to meet the war’s goals and achieve victory.”

The no-confidence motion will be the first by Yesh Atid to reach the Knesset floor for debate since the Israel-Hamas war erupted on October 7. Yesh Atid initially brought forward a no-confidence motion ahead of a plenum session on January 21, but retracted it after the government refrained from placing the new budget bill on the Knesset floor.

No-confidence motions include proposals for a new government – and should Yesh Atid’s motion receive 61 votes, party chairman Yair Lapid would become prime minister. However, the motions are largely intended to embarrass the government and are not actually expected to pass.

Yesh Atid’s decision to advance the motion is noteworthy, however, since it has refrained from doing so since the beginning of the war to demonstrate unity.

The Arab party Hadash-Ta’al, also advanced a no-confidence motion on Sunday, over what it claimed was the government’s refusal to outline a diplomatic solution to the conflict in Gaza.

Labor last week was the first opposition party to go through with a no-confidence motion, which it based on the claim that the government was not doing enough to free Israel’s hostages.

The Islamic party, Ra’am, also put forward a motion last week over the government’s intention to cut funding earmarked for programs in Israeli Arab society – but, like Yesh Atid, Ra’am also retracted its motion when it learned that the budget was delayed.

The 2024 budget proposal was not tabled by press time on Sunday. The proposal, like every other bill, must pass three votes on the Knesset floor. A report by the financial news outlet Calcalist indicated that the proposal would be presented on Tuesday, and put to a vote for its first reading on Wednesday. The Knesset Finance Committee on Thursday would begin to prepare it for its second and third readings. However, a Finance Ministry spokesperson said that it was not certain the proposal will be put forward on Tuesday.

By repeatedly delaying the budget’s presentation to the Knesset, the government has missed deadlines established in law.

Israel’s quasi-constitutional Basic Law: The State Economy, requires that the Knesset pass a new budget for the year 2024, since expenditures due to the war with Hamas made the initial 2024 budget irrelevant. For example, the initial 2024 budget, which passed into law in May, included a 1.35% budget deficit – but according to the new proposal, that deficit will jump to 6.6%.

The Basic Law requires that the government place a renewed budget proposal on the Knesset floor by December 1 preceding the year of the budget in question. The government failed to meet that deadline, and on December 1 amended the law so that in “extraordinary and unexpected” circumstances it would have an extra 50 days, meaning until January 20, to place the renewed proposal before the Knesset. However, the government did not meet this deadline either.

If by February 19 the renewed proposal does not pass into law, the government will face an automatic budget cut in all ministries. This cut could reach an aggregate sum of nearly NIS 70 billion, thus severely harming the government’s ability to provide essential services. However, the law requires a minimum of 30 days to debate the budget in the Knesset – and therefore, if the law is not changed, the government does not have enough time to pass the budget before the automatic cut.

This has created tension in the coalition. Likud faction head and Knesset Home Committee chairman MK Ofir Katz wrote in a letter to Smotrich last week that “since you did not find it necessary to delay the budget deadlines, it should be made clear that the responsibility and blame for the (automatic) budget cuts … will be on the Finance Ministry, and it is your duty to find appropriate solutions.”