Some NIS 59 million has been transferred so far for the 2020 year of operations, although the minimum budget required to operate is NIS 93.68 million. Last year, the movements received NIS 114.9 million.
Hundreds of workers have already been fired from youth movements and some of the movements are facing the possibility of needing to close down completely due to the lack of a budget.
While a budget for the movements is usually provided from coalition funds, this year matters are more complicated due to the lack of a state budget and the transfer of responsibility over the movements from the Education Ministry to the Higher Education Ministry, according to Ynet.A bill to extend the deadline for a state budget was passed last week, pushing the deadline for a state budget to December 23. If the budget is not passed by then and an election would be initiated that night, it would take place on March 23, four days before the Passover holiday begins.
Some NIS 19 million will be provided for support for national service volunteers in 2020, about 40% of the support provided for volunteers in 2019, according to Vice President of the Israel Council of Youth Movements Roei Teshuva.
The Israel Council of Youth Movements has contacted Higher Education Minister Ze'ev Elkin and the Budget Division of the Finance Ministry but was told that there was no solution possible due to the lack of a state budget.
The youth movements have turned to President Reuven Rivlin as well and the Higher Education Ministry stated on Sunday that "the movements have a promise from the president, in coordination with us, that the issue is closed with the budget division."
Despite the promise, there has been no agreement concerning the issue as the budget division has stated that they cannot do anything about the situation. "They stopped our budgets. The attempt by Elkin to receive funds from the Finance Ministry failed," said an official in the Israel Council of Youth Movements.
MK Moshe Gafni, chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee, told Ynet on Sunday that he was making efforts to provide millions of shekel for the youth movements from a NIS 11 billion budget set aside for urgent issues a few days ago.
Some 13 youth movements with hundreds of thousands of members operate throughout Israel. The Scouts (Tzofim) movement, the largest in Israel, has 92,050 members.
"Without the approval of a state budget, ministries are not able to approve requests by public institutions to receive support under section 3A of the Budgetary Principles Law, unless there is an approval by the Special Exceptions Committee for Support in the Accountant-General's Division of the Finance Ministry, for an amount that will not exceed 70% of the total support approved in the prior year," said the Finance Ministry to Ynet.
Due to the fact that in 2019, the budget for youth movements stood at NIS 102.8 billion, the amount that the government can provide for now cannot exceed NIS 71.9 million until a state budget is approved.
The budget crisis for youth movements is the latest in a series of budget crises that have affected youth in Israel. Earlier this month, afternoon care centers, the HILA and Karev programs for at-risk youth and a number of other programs for at-risk and disabled youth and youth from the periphery or minority communities were informed that they would not receive funding and would be closed in the 2020 school year.
After a series of protests and threats of strikes, the Finance and Education ministries shifted budgets to provide a NIS 1.5 billion budget to save the educational programs.Tzvi Joffre and Gil Hoffman contributed to this report.