Party Funding Loophole: Ben-Gvir Registers Second Party

Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has registered a second political party within his Knesset faction, a maneuver that will enable his movement to receive additional millions in state funding. The new party, named "Our Land of Israel" (Eretz Yisrael Shelanu), was registered under the names of Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf and Knesset Member Yitzhak Kreuzer. The move mirrors a strategy Ben-Gvir employed in previous election cycles. The tactic exploits Israel's party financing system: each party receives one funding unit for every member of Knesset it holds, plus one additional unit for the party itself. A faction with five MKs, for example, qualifies for six funding units total. By registering an additional party within the Otzma Yehudit political framework, Ben-Gvir's movement gains an extra funding unit worth approximately 1.83 million shekels (roughly $500,000) annually, according to reports. Separately, the "Yachad" party submitted a split agreement alongside the joint list of Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, allowing both sides to maintain the option of separating after elections. Party officials emphasized there is currently no intention to split, describing it as a bureaucratic procedure that has been used by other joint lists in the past.