Israeli Welfare Ministry Fails to Set Fair Criteria for Food Card Distribution, Funds Likely to Remain Unallocated

The Israeli Welfare Ministry has failed for over a year and a half to establish equitable criteria for distributing more than 250 million shekels through food cards overseen by Shas chairman Aryeh Deri. Due to Shas's insistence on criteria favoring ultra-Orthodox communities, the distribution is unlikely to occur this year, and the funds may remain in the treasury. This was revealed in a recent update from the State Attorney's Office to the Supreme Court, responding to a petition by the NGO Hiddush for Religious Freedom and Equality and other organizations demanding the state set fair criteria and distribute the funds.

The State Attorney's Office stated that no decision has been made regarding the allocation method or criteria, and no timeline can be committed to. They emphasized that without legally approved equitable criteria, the Finance Ministry will not release the quarter-billion shekels to the Welfare Ministry. The Welfare Ministry also noted that even if criteria are set and they request to use the budget, it would require examination under government restraint rules during the election period, especially since these are coalition funds used by Shas for election campaigning. This makes distribution before the elections highly unlikely, and post-election distribution of coalition funds from a previous government is improbable.

Since the COVID-19 crisis, Shas has demanded and received budgets purportedly to aid families facing food insecurity. However, the funds were distributed by the Interior Ministry, mainly based on property tax discounts tailored to ultra-Orthodox income levels, unrelated to actual food insecurity. The 2023 coalition agreement allocated one billion shekels for this purpose, later reduced to 700 million due to the war.

In 2023, Hiddush and the Movement for Quality Government petitioned against the biased distribution favoring ultra-Orthodox communities. Following the petitions, additional groups such as National Insurance beneficiaries and income supplement recipients were included. The Supreme Court ruled that the remaining 300 million shekels for 2025 must be distributed based on equitable criteria developed by the Welfare Ministry. However, the ministry's proposed criteria, favoring ultra-Orthodox populations, were blocked by the Finance Ministry and legal advisors. In July, Hiddush and other hunger relief NGOs petitioned the Supreme Court again, demanding fair criteria and fund distribution.