Israel’s 2026 budget passes first Knesset vote at $220 billion
Ultra-Orthodox factions backed the bill conditionally, while opposition leaders condemned it as favoring exemptions from military service over national security
Israel’s 2026 state budget cleared its first parliamentary hurdle overnight Wednesday into Thursday, passing an initial Knesset vote by 62–55 after last-minute backing from the ultra-Orthodox Shas and Degel HaTorah parties, exposing fresh fractures within the governing coalition.
The vote was not unanimous among the coalition’s religious factions. Several lawmakers from Agudat Israel, part of United Torah Judaism, voted against the budget, including Yitzhak Goldknopf, Yaakov Tessler, and Meir Porush.
MK Avi Maoz of the Noam party also opposed the measure. Degel HaTorah ultimately supported the budget following a ruling by Rabbi Dov Lando, while warning that its continued backing depends on the passage of a long-delayed law regulating ultra-Orthodox military conscription ahead of the bill’s second and third readings.
The proposed 2026 budget totals 811.74 billion shekels (around $220 billion), comprising 580.75 billion shekels ($157 billion) in current expenditures and 230.99 billion shekels ($63 billion) earmarked for development and investment.
Opposition leaders sharply criticized the vote. Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman dismissed the budget as “a sham presented by a sham government,” accusing the coalition of prioritizing the interests of those exempt from military service at the expense of Israel’s security needs.