On the evening of Nov. 11, just moments before the Knesset’s Finance Committee took its crucial vote to approve the state budget, Shas Party members announced that they intended to vote against the budget. The chairman of the Shas Party, Minister of Development of the Negev, Galilee and Periphery Aryeh Deri, had instructed the members of his party to protest at an especially problematic time, leaving the committee’s chairman, Knesset member Moshe Gafni of Yahadut HaTorah, little choice but to cancel the meeting.
The excuse for the crisis that Deri initiated, and which is currently being resolved, was his demand that the VAT be reduced to 0% on public transportation for the entire population and on water for weaker sectors in Israeli society. The cost of this plan is estimated to be hundreds of millions of shekels.