According to a letter National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir sent last month to local authority leaders, the planned cuts to the Community Security Authority will be significantly reduced and workers dealing with addiction will be able to keep their jobs. The authority’s budget will be cut by 80 million shekels ($22 million) instead of the 150 million shekel ($41 million) cut that was originally announced.
An additional 40 million shekels ($11 million) will be allocated from the Forfeiture Fund, a government fund that receives money seized from criminal entities and is intended for projects aligned with the authority’s roles. Due to previous bureaucratic delays, this is the first allocation from the fund in five years.
The cut—decided and approved during the tenure of Minister Haim Katz from the Likud party as acting Minister of National Security—reduced the authority’s 2024 budget from 180 million shekels ($50 million) in 2024 to 30 million shekels ($8 million) in 2025. That amount only covered the operation of the authority’s headquarters and completely eliminated funding for its local branches.
Ben Gvir’s letter clarified that the 65 million shekels ($18 million) designated for employing 1,600 workers in local municipalities will be preserved in the 2025 budget, easing fears of layoffs. The letter also mentions that the authority will undergo a streamlining process this coming year, although the specifics of this are unclear. The effectiveness of the authority’s operations will be assessed—a complicated process due to the difficulty of measuring the impact of preventive efforts.
Since most of the authority’s operational budget is now reliant on the Forfeiture Fund, there is uncertainty as to how much activity will be possible in future years. It’s impossible to predict how much money will accumulate in the fund.
The Forfeiture Fund was established under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance and receives money seized by law enforcement during operations against drug trafficking and money laundering. These funds are allocated for purposes defined in the ordinance, including the operations of the Community Security Authority relations to prevention of violence, antisocial behavior, and substance abuse. The money can be allocated to local authorities and social organizations, based on policies set by the fund’s council, which includes representatives from the authority and various government ministries.
In practice, the fund did not finance any activity for years due to a ridiculous legal loophole: the ordinance specified that the fund be managed by a council chaired by the Authority for the War on Drugs and Alcohol—a body that was abolished by law after the establishment of the Community Security Authority. As a result, the fund’s council last convened in 2019, and for five years, no money was distributed. By the end of 2023, the fund had accumulated around 70 million shekels ($19 million)—a figure that has likely grown. These details were only made public in April 2024 following a freedom of information request by the Movement for Freedom of Information in Israel.
Only in September 2024 were the regulations amended and approved by the Knesset Constitution Committee, enabling the fund’s operations to resume. In response to a request from Davar, the Ministry of National Security said that all necessary appointments to the council had recently been completed, in line with the regulations, allowing the council to convene.
The ministry also stated that the 40 million shekel figure announced as the fund’s allocation for this year is an estimate, and the final sum has yet to be determined. A call for budget requests from the fund is expected to be published during the second quarter of 2025, after the council convenes and work processes are launched.
The Community Security Authority is tasked with leading the government’s efforts to prevent violence, crime, and substance abuse. It operates in local authorities through approximately 1,600 social workers and community safety instructors and runs a range of activities aimed at strengthening community resilience.
This article was translated from Hebrew by Matthew Levy.
