JNF funds illegal outposts; more public money goes to Orthodox

The OECD has called on Israel to increase funding to Arab schools and stop subsidies for yeshiva students.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Tuesday released a report calling on Israel to halt subsidies for yeshiva students and increase funding for Arab schools.

This follows strong efforts by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to do the opposite – increase the budgets for ultra-Orthodox institutions while delaying and reducing the development and education budgets for the Arab sector.

The OECD Going for Growth 2023 report is intended to provide the countries comprising the multilateral organisation with guidelines for formulating policies aimed at bringing about growth, including individual recommendations tailored to each member state.

For Israel to improve inclusiveness and social protection conditions, the report recommended removing government subsidies for yeshiva students and conditioning childcare support on fathers’ employment, while increasing childcare and education funding for Arab schools, to equalise their budget to schools with similar socio-economic profiles in the Hebrew sector.

The report also warned that the ultra-Orthodox and Arabs are underrepresented in the high-tech sector and their employment rates are low, as are the scope of their working hours and wages.

Both government funding and donations are increasingly being directed to extremist nationalist and Orthodox institutions.

The JNF transferred four million shekels ($A1.64m) over the past two years for at-risk youth training programs to organisations that promote living in strategically placed outposts intended to minimise Palestinian grazing grounds.

The money, intended for professional training for youths, was transferred to organisations and groups that encourage the construction of illegal outposts. One of these organisations encourages volunteers to  work in shepherd's farms, whose occupants have been accused by left-wing activists of violence and harassment of Palestinians.