Protesters swarm Knesset, barring entrance to lawmakers as gov’t passes budget

Despite attempts by protesters to block coalition lawmakers from entering the Knesset and disruptions inside the parliament building, Netanyahu government manages to secure passage of the 2025 budget.

By World Israel News Staff

The Knesset voted Tuesday afternoon to pass the 2025 national budget, securing funding for state institutions and preventing a collapse of the Netanyahu government and dissolution of the 25th Knesset.

Israel’s government is required by statute to pass a law providing for the funding of all state functions by the end of March 31; failure to do so would result in the immediate termination of the government’s mandate and the calling of snap elections.

On a strictly party-line vote, the 120-member Knesset voted 66 to 52 in favor of the budget law proposed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionist Party), which allocates 755.9 billion shekels in spending, with a deficit ceiling of 4.9%.

Smotrich trimmed the wartime deficit, which peaked in 2024, through 35 billion shekels’ worth of spending cuts and tax hikes.

Of the 755.9 billion shekel total, the largest single allocation in the budget went to Israel’s Defense Ministry, which received 109.8 billion shekels, followed by the Education Ministry with 90 billion, the National Insurance Institute (Bituach Leumi) with 61 billion and the Health Ministry with 59 billion.

Demonstrators protested the government from both inside and outside the Knesset building.

Relatives of hostages still held in the Gaza Strip held up photographs of captives in the Knesset’s visitor gallery, and some opposition lawmakers held up signs reading “59” – referring to the number of remaining hostages.

Outside the Knesset, dozens of clashed with police, attempted to disrupt traffic, and even briefly blocked lawmakers from entering the parliament building. A number of demonstrators blocked a road outside the building in an attempt to prevent members of the Otzma Yehudit faction from attending Tuesday’s vote.

Anti-government protesters assaulted Otzma Yehudit MK Almog Cohen. Cohen later managed to enter the Knesset with an escort of security guards.

“I had to enter on foot because of the many roadblocks, and I was violently attacked by a bunch of rioters,” Cohen told Arutz Sheva. “My only sin was coming to vote for the budget. I call on the police to do their work. You can’t allow people to attack with such brutality. It will end with blood in the streets.”

Police arrested six demonstrators for disorderly conduct.

Opposition lawmakers condemned the state budget, with Opposition leader Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) claiming it funded “corrupt coalition” interests and “unnecessary government offices.”

“The Israeli middle class is tired of being taken advantage of. It’s tired of being exploited. It’s tired of living under a government that doesn’t care about it. It is the heart and brain of the country, its army, its economy. It fights in Gaza and Lebanon, and then comes home to fight the mortgage and the cost of living,” Lapid said.