Israel’s cabinet has approved a NIS 3 billion ($840 million) support package for IDF reservists and their families.
The package offers economic and social benefits for reservists fighting on the front lines, and their loved ones.
The initiative includes increased tax credits and grants aimed at employers who hire them. The plan also outlines discounted access to government housing programs and dedicated grants for discharged soldiers.
In addition, reservists will receive a personal digital wallet with a value of up to NIS 5,000 (approximately $1,400) for leisure and welfare expenditures.
Further components of the support package include aid for small businesses owned by reservists, assistance with navigating civil service job applications, specific benefits tailored for immigrant reservists, and prioritized access to various government services.
“Our reservists do everything for the country. We need to give them everything,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
“Our rule is simple: whoever contributes to the country will be rewarded with compound interest. And that is what we did today — in a series of very dramatic decisions, in billions of shekels.”
The plan aims to provide significant support and recognition for the vital contributions of Israel’s reserve forces.
“Reservists carry the burden of war on their backs, they and their families, women and children,” Defense Minister Israel Katz added.
“Today we took another step in promoting justice for reservists. We added another NIS 4 billion shekels [$1.1 billion] totaling NIS 20 billion [$5.6 billion] for aid — not only for reserve soldiers, but for families, children, the wounded, and everyone connected to express our appreciation, to help them in a practical way.”
The benefits package comes as Netanyahu’s haredi coalition partners continue their threats to bring down the government over the delayed passage of a law to exempt yeshiva students from military service – and as some 18,500 reservists were called up for 100 days of duty ahead of an expanded offensive in Gaza.
The growing strain on reservists – some of whom have served for nearly a year – is adding to demands for expanding the draft of haredi yeshiva students, along with outrage against the haredi parties who seek to exempt them.
Both the Shas Sephardic religious party and the Ashkenazi haredi United Torah Judaism party threatened this weekend to boycott votes in the Knesset over the issue after IDF Chief of Staff LTG Eyal Zamir ordered the delivery of thousands of new draft notices to those in the haredi population.
Adding to the tension is the fact that the High Court of Justice is expected to demand equal application of the mandatory military service law despite a “status quo” agreement reached between founding Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and Israel’s leading rabbinic authorities at the time, deferring military service for haredi men studying full-time in yeshiva.
Over the past 20 years, anger at the haredi sector from Israel’s secular population over the issue has grown. Students in the National Religious movement enlist each year, including many who participate in the “hesder yeshiva” program that combines Torah learning with military service.
