Yesterday evening, the Financial Committee of the Occupation Municipality approved a budget worth 6.2 billion shekels, in light of the war it is waging against Jerusalemites in conjunction with the war on the Gaza Strip.

The committee approved a huge budget to finance projects to consolidate settlement and Judaization and to advance other projects in the field of linking settlements inside the city with those in the interior and in the north and south of East Jerusalem in the Jordan Valley region.

The budget includes building more schools and educational institutions in occupied East Jerusalem to impose the Israeli curriculum on Jerusalemites within the 2023-2025 plan to Judaize education in the occupied city and increasing allocations for the so-called (law enforcement), meaning the demolition of more Palestinian homes under the pretext of not having a permit.

According to the occupation municipality: “Before discussions on Monday in the municipal finance committee, some members of the city council appealed to Mayor Moshe Leon, demanding that discussions and approval of the extraordinary budget (TKBR) for the year 2024 not be held until after the elections for a new municipal council. This demand was rejected”, when a fairly broad front of supporters gathered to approve the budget (opponents included members of the "Awakening" faction as well as Deputy Mayor Yossi Havelio and Councilwoman Laura Wharton).

The municipal finance committee met on Monday evening and approved a huge budget of 6.2 billion shekels, which is a larger budget than before (the extraordinary budget) for the year 2024. It is the largest approved by the municipality, and it is higher than last year’s budget by about 200 million shekels, after the jump in the 2023 budget. By about 20 percent compared to the 2022 budget.

It should be noted that the final approval of the budget will take place tomorrow, Thursday 28.12, at the last municipal council meeting of 2023.

The approved budget includes 4 billion shekels for projects in the field of transportation and the tunnel network in East Jerusalem to connect it to West Jerusalem, and in 7 different settlement projects in cooperation with ministries and settlement councils in Jabal Abu Ghneim, Beit Safafa, Beit Hanina, Umm Tuba, and Hizma, which means that infrastructure work is likely to remain throughout next year as well.

The budget included building schools and renovating educational buildings for tens of millions of shekels, including building a huge school complex in the Ras area - above the Shuafat neighborhood/village, constructing three wide roads and completing Bypass Road 20 and Bypass Road 21 from the “Ramat Shlomo” settlement to the “Atarot” industrial zone in addition to constructing a bypass road in Shuafat to connect the “Ramat Shlomo” settlement to the bypass road 443 Tel Aviv Jerusalem.

The municipal budget comes in line with the occupation government’s five-year plan for Jerusalem, for the years 2024-2028, and aims in its entirety to change the Palestinian identity of Jerusalem, after the insistence of the Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, known for his fascist and racist positions, to remove the item related to promoting higher education for young Jerusalemites, in the amount of 200 One million shekels, from the plan.

According to the budget, the occupation municipality in Jerusalem receives a large amount that was not accurately disclosed in the entire five-year plan, 3.2 billion shekels, including 2.450 billion shekels from the ministries’ budgets, and about 750 million shekels from the Jerusalem municipality, the Innovation Authority, the Electricity Company, and others.

The plan's budget was about one billion shekels more than the budget of the previous five-year plan for occupied Jerusalem, which was 2.1 billion shekels.

According to the budget makers, based on the objectives of the official Israeli government plan, the plan aims to deepen absolute control over the occupied city, completely change its Arab and Islamic face, tighten its grip on the occupied city, especially in the areas of education and settlement, and integrate Jerusalemites into the Israeli economy so that the only connection and option for dealing with the Israeli market and institutions is “The only one” and “the preferred one,” thus deepening and consolidating Israeli control not only over the city, but also over the people of Jerusalem, and ultimately achieving the Israelization of Arab society and the Judaization of the entire city.

It focuses on six areas: (education and higher education, economy and trade, employment and welfare, transportation, improving the quality of life and services provided to the population, and land planning and registration).

The Israeli municipal budget, based on the Judaization plan, pays attention mainly to education, and 800 million shekels are allocated to the education and training item, with the aim of “increasing the number and percentage of students in the Israeli curricula and preparation programs for the Israeli academy, so that it leads to their integration into the academy and the world of employment, by providing material and educational incentives" also increasing the number of occupation police officers and municipal inspectors in Jerusalem neighborhoods, in addition to installing security cameras and establishing additional police stations.

The budget for the Judaization plan for the five years is 3.2 billion shekels - from various Israeli ministries in the extremist government, and the main responsibility for its implementation was placed on the Israeli Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage, with the participation of both the “Company for the Development of East Jerusalem” and the accompaniment of the “Alkha Institute - Joint Israel” in addition to Moreover, 8 other Israeli ministries are participating in implementing the plan, such as the Ministries of Education and Health, the Water Authority, Hagihon (an Israeli water company), and the occupation municipality. It is accompanied by the “Al-Quds Institute for Policy Research,” in terms of academic research and in terms of evaluating its application and effects.

The education sector accounts for the largest share of the Judaization plan’s budget, with a value of at least 445 million shekels, meaning that from 2018 to 2023, Israel spends approximately 89 million shekels annually on shaping the educational sector in Jerusalem according to its interests, which aim to replace the Palestinian curriculum with the Israeli one and Israelize it. 

Within the education sector, the Judaization plan focuses on several levels, most notably increasing demand for the Israeli curriculum in schools (with a budget of 200 million shekels, which includes educational incentives, building rental budgets, etc.), expanding the scope of non-curricular education (with the highest budget: 206 million shekels), and teaching the Hebrew language ( With a budget of 15 million shekels), and technological education (with a budget of 12.5 million shekels).