As tensions with Hezbollah escalate in northern Israel, one of the strongest sources of normalcy and resilience for Israeli youth is youth movement membership. Some 250,000 Israeli youth take part in movements, with high schoolers and post-high school volunteers serving as counselors for younger children and providing experiential, values-based education. But government holdup around transferring funds to the youth movements mean that one quarter of the movements’ post-high school volunteers may have to be sent home next month, movement leaders say.
Twenty four members of the opposition sent a letter to Education Minister Yoav Kisch yesterday demanding that he provide the full budget to the movements. “The government of Israel must invest a relatively modest sum of 18 million shekels ($4.8 million) in order to ensure that all service year volunteers can continue in their respective programs,” the lawmakers wrote. “This investment secures the futures of these volunteers for another year before their army service. These are young people who are leaders in the realms of Zionism, volunteering, and personal responsibility, and among whom the proportion that will become officers in the army is three times higher than that of all army recruits.”
Lior Simcha, secretary general of the Kibbutz Movement, and Amit Yifrach, secretary general of the Moshav Movement, joined the call. “We were surprised to hear arguments on the news about plans to slash the budget for the youth movements and their service year programs by about 25%, something that will have a dramatic effect on the programs’ ability to continue to support their volunteers who work as counselors and coordinators in centers for educational and social activity in hundreds of cities, neighborhoods, moshavim, and kibbutzim all over the country,” the two wrote to Kisch. “We turn to you as those who lead the [kibbutz and moshav] movement, many of whose children are service year volunteers, something so necessary after the horrible tragedy that we experienced on October 7. We ask you to stop these budget cuts and to defend the education system and our youth.”
Kisch promised that the youth movements would receive similar budgets to those of last year. But the stance of the youth movements is that until the budget is actually passed and the money is transferred, the cuts are still in place. The youth movement HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed wrote in a letter to parents, “Despite the promises made by the ministers of education and finance, as of right now, we’re still missing 25% of our budget.”
The youth movement HaMahanot HaOlim wrote, “We have heard many promises from the Ministries of Education and Finance in the past that unfortunately never came to fruition. Until we see the budget passed and the money transferred, we cannot return to normal operation. The present reality does not allow us to continue the service year programs until the budget is paid.”
A protest of service year volunteers was held in Jerusalem on Monday to try to get the ministers to make good on their promises.
Kisch’s promise was not convincing to the youth movements, since similar statements were made in March, and the budget still has yet to pass. Furthermore, despite budgetary changes being made to help pay for reconstruction in the North, the budget for the youth movements is still set to be 88 million shekels ($23 million) in 2024, down from 110 million shekels ($29 million) in 2023.
The youth movements are budgeted for mainly via the regulatory powers of the Ministry of Education. The decision to cut the youth movements’ budgets comes following two parallel decisions: to broadly cut the budgets of the government ministries, and to reduce their regulatory powers. Because the budget for the youth movements is divvied up based on each movement’s size, the relative damage will be the same for each movement.
This article was translated from Hebrew and edited for context by Tzivia Gross.
