Israel’s 2005 draft budget includes a $10 million boost for birthright israel. The allocation is $1 million higher than government funds put aside last year for the program, despite planned cuts to other areas of the Israeli public sector under the spending package approved Monday by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Cabinet. Natan Sharansky, Israel’s minister for Diaspora affairs, said the boost to birthright showed “the government’s recognition of the importance of the project to the Jewish people.” Birthright, which brings young Jews from all over the world on free trips to Israel, is a joint project of the Israeli government and foreign donors.
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