Despite intense pushback from politicians on both sides of the aisle, the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday approved a controversial bill panned by critics as an effort to significantly raise lawmakers’ and cabinet members’ salaries at the same time as taxpayers are being hit by both rising consumer prices, inflation and multiple tax increases.

The legislation, sponsored by Likud MK Avihai Boaron, aims to regulate and equalize salaries between senior officials in all three branches of government, in response to some lawmakers’ complaints that some senior officials, like Supreme Court judges and the head of the Prisons Service, earn more than President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Netanyahu.

While Boaron says that the bill would actually lead to salary cuts for the highest earners, critics, including within the coalition, contend it is actually intended to raise ministers’ and lawmakers’ salaries.

The bill drew criticism from Shas chairman Aryeh Deri, who tweeted ahead of the vote that his party would “oppose any initiative to raise the salaries of MKs and ministers” in the middle of a war, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who indicated that his support is conditioned on there being “no salary increases.”

“As the entire economy faces budgetary pressures and economic challenges, it is our moral duty to set a personal example. Right now, we are all doing our part,” Smotrich stated — calling to “cut the wages of those with excessive salaries, such as the president of the Supreme Court, who........

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