Diverting Budgets from Arab Society: A Cynical Move that Perpetuates Inequality
- ACRI
- Nov 11
- 2 min read
On November 11, 2025, ACRI appealed to the Attorney General with a request not to advance a government resolution proposal being promoted by Minister for Social Equality May Golan that seeks to divert close to 3 billion shekels that were allocated for the welfare of Arab society to the Ministry of National Security for the purpose of addressing crime in Arab society.
The budgets that are being proposed to be reallocated were intended to finance a variety of programs, including the construction of classrooms and kindergartens, training social workers, transportation and electricity infrastructure, health and mental health services, cultural programs, and youth employment. Attorney Elza Bugnet argued in the appeal that transferring the funds would deprive Arab society of desperately-needed resources, including education, health, employment, transportation, and social welfare, and is consequently an infringement on the right to equality and other fundamental rights of the Arab population. This proposal is even more galling given the fact that the original purpose of the five-year plan for the budget was to correct a historical injustice and years of discrimination in budgets for Arab society in comparison with Jewish society.
The appeal also argues that the Minister's proposal is unreasonable and made in bad faith: part of the justification for the proposal is that the five-year plan budgets are not being utilized—but the Minister herself is the one who prevented their allocation by not convening the committee responsible since taking office nearly two years ago! Additionally, the Minister may have a conflict of interest since she is being investigated for ethics offenses, and therefore may not even have the authorization to transfer budgets to the police.
The appeal notes that there is no dispute that the fight against crime in Arab society is a major issue, and one that is especially urgent given the State's inability to deal with it. But dealing with crime in Arab society that has its own strategic plan and its own budgets. The two plans are meant to complement each other, since deep socio-economic issues in Arab society drastically affect the levels of crime and violence, and vice versa. Therefore, diverting the budgets intended for the welfare of Arab society to addressing crime is absurd, since if these plans come at the expense of one another, neither of them is expected to be successful.
ACRI's appeal, November 11, 2025 (Heb)
For Hebrew articles written about this issue, see here.
