The Mossawa Center condemns the approval by the Knesset Finance Committee this week of a cut amounting to 220 million shekels from the budgets of Government Resolution 550 for 2025, transferring these funds to the police and the Shin Bet. The Center considers this a dangerous political step that falls within a broader governmental approach that continues to address the issues of Arab society in a hostile and racist manner, instead of investing in genuine civilian solutions that address the root causes of the crises.

Information published by civil society organizations reveals that the Ministry of National Security failed to utilize approximately 572 million shekels allocated under Government Resolution 549 for combating violence and crime in Arab society. It should be noted that Ben Gvir’s ministry has received an additional 7 billion shekels in recent years.

The Mossawa Center reiterates its warnings from recent weeks that cutting budgets designated to address social and economic gaps and diverting them to security agencies does not contribute to combating crime. On the contrary, it deepens existing crises and further marginalizes Arab society. This step fully aligns with the policies of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, particularly following the revelation of an unutilized surplus of 572 million shekels under Government Resolution 549 for combating crime—funds that would have undoubtedly contributed to crime prevention. While the ministry fails to use the budgets already at its disposal, it is pushing to cut budgets allocated to other areas such as education and housing and transfer them to its own coffers. This can only be interpreted as a deliberate policy of further impoverishing Arab society and plunging it deeper into crises, including the scourge of crime.

The Mossawa Center emphasizes that, in cooperation with other civil society organizations and Arab local authorities, it is considering escalating its response, including protest actions and legal measures, to confront these dangerous and successive decisions, prevent them from being imposed as a fait accompli, and defend the right of Arab society to fair budgets and responsible policies. It is expected that Minister May Golan will continue cutting budgets allocated to development plans for Arab society within the government budget for 2026, which the Ministry of Finance is expected to submit to the Knesset in the coming month.

The approval took place in a violent atmosphere, which led all Knesset members from the opposition factions to withdraw from the session in protest against the manner in which it was conducted. This followed the prevention of questions and the refusal to provide substantive clarifications regarding the financial transfers, thereby stripping the parliamentary debate of its genuine oversight role. Several Knesset members appealed to the Knesset’s legal adviser, demanding a review of the entire process of discussion and voting. Subsequently, Knesset Legal Adviser Sagit Afik decided to cancel a number of votes that had taken place during the session, including items related to previous budget transfers, due to procedural and legal flaws in the way they were approved.