In recent weeks, Minister for Social Equality May Golan and Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir have advanced a government proposal to divert more than NIS 2.5 B from GR-550, the second multibillion shekel five-year plan to narrow socio-economic gaps for Arab society, to the Israel Police. According to the proposal, the budgets would be used to intensify law enforcement efforts aimed at combating crime in Arab society. If approved, the plan would cut funds already budgeted for 2025 and take roughly half of the remaining budget for 2026 (the last year of implementation).
The proposal reflects a commitment made in this government’s coalition agreements with Otzma Yahudit, in which the party was promised budget cuts to GR-550 and the diversion of these funds to the police. Since that time, there have been numerous attempts to advance this initiative, including efforts to push through GR-550 cuts and reallocate the funds. The maneuver is more feasible now because several key ministries — Interior, Health, and Welfare — currently lack active Haredi ministers (due to their resignations over the draft bill), reducing institutional resistance to cuts in development-oriented budgets.
While crime is a top concern for Arab communities, this proposal is raising significant controversy and pushback from leaders and professionals involved in Arab socio-economic development and shared society. Reallocating funds from GR-550 is widely viewed as punitive to Arab society and counterproductive to addressing the root causes of high crime. Diverting those funds to law enforcement efforts also raises skepticism given that Minister Ben-Gvir halted crime prevention programs for Arab society when he took office and is perceived as using law enforcement in ways that intensify state-minority tensions.
Projects that have already been allocated funding under GR‑550, but have not yet received it, would also be put under immediate risk. These include initiatives in education, employment, youth empowerment, and community development that were designed to address long-standing socio-economic gaps and strengthen social cohesion. Given how successful GR-550 has been, this proposal is seen as targeting momentum around socio-economic development for Arab society in Israel and risking years of investment and growth.
According to MK Golan’s proposal, the funds diverted from GR-550 would be used to intensify law enforcement efforts aimed at combating crime in Arab society. The allocations include:
The vote on the proposed decision was scheduled for November 16, but was postponed due to a coordinated effort led by civil-society organizations, the National Committee for Heads of Arab Local Authorities and senior officials in the affected government ministries. It is expected to be redeliberated on December 4th at the same time when the government seeks to approve a state budget for Knesset review.
Approved in October 2021, with a NIS 30 B budget, GR-550 (2021-2026) is the largest national plan for socio-economic development in Arab society in Israel. Alongside its predecessor, GR‑922 (2016-2020), it represents an unprecedented investment in long-term capacity building, access to education and employment, housing, welfare, and community infrastructure. GR-550 has delivered measurable progress in Arab society: budget allocations reaching 87% in its first year, and 77% in 2024. Some of the notable successes of the program are:
By 2021 when GR-550 was passed, crime was already at crisis levels in Arab society. Alongside GR-550, the government also passed Government Resolution 549 (GR-549), a NIS 2.5 B five-year initiative to combat crime and violence in Arab society through coordinated law-enforcement measures. Both GR-550 and GR-549 emerged from comprehensive professional work led by an inter-ministerial committee established in 2019 under PM Netanyahu, based on the understanding that an effective strategy to address the crime crisis requires combining enforcement with robust educational, welfare, and economic foundations.
Since the formation of the current government, Minister Ben-Gvir has been responsible for Resolution 549. Under his authority, flagship programs such as “Safe Track” and “Stopping the Bleeding” were suspended. Implementation of GR-549 budgets dropped to 21%, and the number of Arab citizens murdered soared from 111 in 2022 (the first time in five years that the numbers did not rise) to 244 in 2023 and more than 200 in 2025.
The new proposal has drawn strong opposition from professional bodies, civil society organizations, and local authorities, who argue that the move is fundamentally counterproductive to the stated goal of reducing violence and crime.
If approved, the budgets’ diversion would place numerous initiatives at immediate risk, halting their progress, dismantling existing programs, or setting back developments by years. These are programs designed to address the root causes of crime by expanding opportunities in education, employment, youth empowerment, and community development, including:
Hassan Towarfa, recent Director of the Authority for Economic Development of Arab Society who developed and implemented GR-550 until earlier this year, describes MK Golan’s proposal in the economic publication, Calcalist: “This isn’t a cut. It’s the complete cancellation of what remains of GR-550. The damage will be enormous because many government programs for Arab society were incorporated into this resolution — for example, after-school activities or vocational training — and all of them will stop because there will be no budget. Everything that has been built over the past few years is being thrown away. There will be buildings left half-finished, including local authority buildings and sports facilities — creating many white elephants. Renovations of family care centers (Heb. Tipat Halav) will be halted. As part of this decision, we established the first cinematheque in Arab society, the first acting school, the first theater, and the first museum. They only recently recruited staff and began putting on performances, and now everything will shut down. We opened three innovation centers to support young tech entrepreneurs. They will no longer receive funding.”
Many directors of government ministries also expressed serious concerns. The Director General of the Ministry of Welfare, Yinon Aharoni, clarified that the proposal put forward by Ministers Golan and Ben-Gvir would lead to the immediate closure of more than 300 welfare services and programs across the country.
The Director General of the Ministry of Welfare, Yinon Aharoni, clarified that the proposal put forward by Ministers Golan and Ben-Gvir would lead to the immediate closure of more than 300 welfare services and programs across the country.
The Director General of the Ministry of Education, Meir Shimoni, wrote that diverting these funds would have severe consequences for the education system in general, and for the Arab education system in particular. “Canceling these programs could set Arab education back many years,” he warned.
In its official letter, the Ministry of Justice stated: “The proposal presented to us is not only unlikely to achieve its stated goals — combating and reducing crime in Arab society — but is expected to result in the opposite effect. <…> How can such a significant decision regarding national law-enforcement be advanced without systematic preparatory work with all relevant authorities?”
The National Committee for Heads of Arab Local Authorities and the Federation of Local Authorities are engaged in urgent advocacy with government ministries expected to lose funding. The CEOs of leading civil-society organizations, including Co-Impact, the Abraham Initiatives, Sikkuy-Aufoq, AJEEC-NISPED, Kav Mashve, Tsofen-Tashbik, Hasoub, Be-Atzmi, Al-Fanar, aChord and Tapuach*, sent a letter to the Director-General of the Ministry of Finance detailing the consequences of the proposed cuts for Arab society, national public safety, and the economic future of Israel. They argued that closing programs in education, welfare and infrastructure is not a crime-fighting strategy.
In a letter sent by the National Committee for Heads of Arab Local Authorities to the Prime Minister, they noted: “This would effectively destroy the foundation of long-term crime-prevention strategy and reverse nearly a decade of progress”.
The original vote on the proposal was postponed, but anticipation of its redeliberation alongside the 2026 stage budge discussion has its own consequences. Funding allocations are already being held in anticipation that the proposal may pass, jeopardizing those payments regardless. Observers note that Ministers Golan and Ben-Gvir may condition their support for the state budget, set for governmental discussion on December 4th, on the approval of MK’s Golan proposal. If the proposal is moved forward, the re-allocation of some of funds would still require Knesset Finance Committee authorization.
* Members of Co-Impact’s Civil Society Forum.
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