Israel’s Knesset has voted to give final approval for legislation to significantly raise the 2024 budget’s deficit cap, in an apparent effort to cover the occupation’s extreme military expenses spent in the ongoing offensive against the Gaza Strip.
On Monday night, the proposed legislation to raise Israel’s deficit ceiling passed its second and third readings in the Knesset by a vote of 62-52, enabling the cap to grow from its former 6.6 percent of gross national production to 7.7 per cent.
It essentially allows the Israeli government to add approximately NIS 33 billion ($9 billion) in funds to its 2024 budget, the vast majority of which will reportedly go to defence and military expenditure.
The dramatic expansion of the budget and its focus on the defence sector comes at a time when the occupation’s ongoing war on Gaza and its genocide in the territory increasingly impacts the Israeli economy due to a number of factors including a decrease in tourism and the greatly extended period of military reserve service imposed on the country’s population.
Alongside the raising of the deficit cap, the Knesset also voted to extend Israel’s state of emergency until 16 December 2025 in line with the security cabinet’s recommendation, further expanding the chances of a long dragged out conflict in Gaza and potentially the wider region.
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