“Israel Hayom”: the military rejected Netanyahu’s offer to increase the chief of staff’s pensions

According to Israel Hayom, Netanyahu proposed a compromise in the form of a temporary order (“oraat shaa”) for a period of two years, but the IDF leadership rejected all proposals, and Israel Katz supported the officers in this.

We are talking about attempts to legalize the bonuses of the Chief of the General Staff to the pensions of retired officers and warrant officers, which were issued illegally for many years. We are talking about a very serious amount: a sixth of all budget pensions, or 1.6 billion shekels per year, are illegal supplements to military pensions.

Let us remind you that on January 1, 2026, the verdict of the High Court, abolishing the allowances, will come into force. Military pensioners who have already received bonuses will not have to pay them back, and their pension conditions will remain unchanged – the changes will only affect new pensioners.

In 2019, the NGO “Financial Justice” filed a claim with the Supreme Court against the automatic provision of a chief of general staff bonus to a military pension to retiring career officers and warrant officers.

To find out the origins of the appearance of the Chief of General Staff’s bonus, it was necessary to conduct an in-depth investigation, which revealed a vague government decision of 1961, which spoke about the possibility of the Chief of General Staff to give an increase to the pension in certain specific cases.

In 2016, an audit by the State Comptroller showed that over time, the bonus had become almost automatic and was awarded to 98% of those demobilizing.

As a result, those demobilized upon reaching 42 years of age or more receive a 6% bonus to their pension for 3 years of military service (which, according to the Ministry of Finance, is also unreasonable), as well as a 4%-19% bonus to the chief of the general staff.