Approximately 18 months ago, a joint investigation by Shomrim and financial newspaper Calcalist uncovered significant bias in an Interior Ministry program aimed at distributing food vouchers to low-income families. The investigation revealed that the program disproportionately favored the ultra-Orthodox community at the expense of other disadvantaged groups in Israeli society, particularly the Bedouin and Arab populations. This disparity arose from the criteria used to determine voucher eligibility: households already receiving an ongoing discount on municipal taxes automatically qualified for the voucher program, while those not benefiting from the discount had to submit individual applications and prove their financial need.

This week, the state told the High Court that the plan is being halted and will be transferred from the Interior Ministry to the Welfare Ministry as of next year. The state also said it would no longer use municipal tax as the criterion for eligibility.

In its response to the court, the state said that a committee of senior ministry officials – including the directors-general of the interior, finance and welfare ministries – appointed to examine the issue decided to end the program in its current format. The panel recommended that, of the 300 million shekels that are still available for distribution this year, 210 million shekels should be handed out by the Interior Ministry according to the current criteria – but that it should no longer discriminate between those who are eligible for the voucher because they already received an ongoing discount in municipal taxes and those who are eligible for other reasons, such as supplemental income. The remaining 90 million shekels are to be transferred to the Welfare Ministry’s National Council for Food Security – with a third of that sum being specifically earmarked for Arab society.

Background: A billion shekels and a High Court petition

The food voucher program was launched during the coronavirus pandemic when the Interior Ministry distributed 700 million shekels ($194 Million) of vouchers. At the time, the main criterion for eligibility was that the recipient already be eligible on an ongoing basis for a 70 percent discount in municipal taxes. As mentioned, this favored the ultra-Orthodox population. For instance, residents of the Neveh Midbar Regional Council—comprising several unrecognized Bedouin villages—received an average of just 14 shekels each ($4), compared to 530 shekels ($64) per person in Modi’in Illit. This disparity exists despite both communities being classified in the lowest socioeconomic cluster.

The project was also controversial because it was entrusted to the Interior Ministry, rather than the Welfare Ministry, and because the National Council for Food Security – the government body established for exactly this purpose - was not involved. The fact that, during the election campaign shortly after the launch of the project, posters with Dery’s name and face appeared in ultra-Orthodox cities – alongside a reminder about the food cards – gave rise to suspicions that it was no coincidence that the project benefited the ultra-Orthodox more than any other group.

The state budget approved by the current government, which is dictated by the agreements between Likud and the other parties in the coalition, allocated 1 billion shekels ($270 million) to the food voucher program in 2023 and 2024 – once again through the Interior Ministry and the main criterion for eligibility remains eligibility for a municipal tax discount. While eligibility has been expanded by introducing additional criteria, they also discriminate against anyone who is not a member of the ultra-Orthodox community. For example, mothers who receive child-support payments and employees who get supplemental income were eligible for food vouchers for themselves and their partners – but not their children. In contrast, anyone who gets a discount on municipal taxes receives 300 shekels for both partners and another 225 shekels for each child – up to a total of 2,400 shekels ($660) per family.

As reported by Shomrim – which has been covering the issue in a series of articles since January 2021 – the Movement for Quality Government in Israel and the Hiddush NGO petitioned the High Court against the program in August, arguing that “the eligibility criteria are extremely discriminatory, undermine fundamental rights and were improperly devised.” The petition further claimed that “the new criteria, which are virtually identical to the previous ones, reflect a clear and demonstrable bias in favor of ultra-Orthodox families.”