Netanyahu's Claim of 53 Billion Shekels to Hamas Supporters Debunked

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently claimed on Channel 14's "Patriots" program that the previous Bennett-Lapid government, under Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman, allocated 53 billion shekels to organizations linked to Hamas supporters. This assertion has been fact-checked and found to be largely inaccurate.

The 53 billion shekels were part of a coalition agreement between Yesh Atid and the Ra'am party, intended to address disparities within the Arab Israeli community. The funds were slated for allocation over several years, extending from 2022 to 2030, meaning the Bennett-Lapid government, which ended in late 2022, did not disburse the majority of these funds.

Further examination reveals the intended recipients were primarily government bodies, not NGOs. A 30 billion shekel program for reducing gaps in the Arab community was largely unspent by the end of 2022, with only 5.9 billion shekels utilized. Of this, a small portion was allocated to the Ministry for Social Equality to strengthen civil society, not specifically to NGOs with alleged Hamas ties.

Another 20 billion shekels were designated for the government-owned company Netivei Ayalon for urban transportation infrastructure. The article notes that this company is not suspected of supporting terrorism and that the government had not even finalized the allocation of these funds before its term ended. The remaining 2.5 billion shekels were intended for combating crime and violence in the Arab community, with funds earmarked for government agencies like the Israel Police and the Ministry of Welfare, again, not for NGOs.

The report also highlights that many of these programs are continuations of initiatives approved under previous Netanyahu governments, and the current government has also continued some of these allocations. Netanyahu's office did not provide a response to the claims.