Israel's Knesset passes controversial budget with subsidies for ultra-Orthodox schools and settlements.

The Knesset has approved state budgets for 2023 and 2024, ending months of coalition bickering over funding priorities that had threatened to upend Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. The budget includes billions in funding for sectoral interests, including grants to the ultra-Orthodox community, which has drawn criticism from protesters. The budget process highlighted fault lines within the hardline government, with three factions publicly pulling their support for the budget unless handed additional funding allocations. Netanyahu and his finance minister secured the last of the votes needed to pass the state budget by promising far-right party Otzma Yehudit to funnel up to NIS 250 million ($68 million) into a party-held ministry that supports development in the Negev and the Galilee regions.