Israel’s Finance Ministry came to an agreement with the Knesset Finance Committee on Tuesday, headed by MK Moshe Gafni (UTJ), to adapt the plan to grant stimulus checks to Israelis so it won’t discriminate against families with many children.

According to an announcement by coalition chairman MK Miki Zohar (Likud), the plan has been adjusted for large families so that parents receive additional funds for each child.

The original plan called for couples with one child to receive NIS 2,000 ($583), families with two children to receive NIS 2,500 ($729), families with three or more children to receive NIS 3,000 ($875), and families with four or more children to receive the same amount as parents of three children.

The adapted plan calls for families with four children to receive another NIS 500 for the fourth child and families with five or six children to receive an additional NIS 300 for each child. Families with seven and more children will receive another NIS 100 for each child, up to ten children.

Gafni and the other Chareidi MKs slammed the original plan for discriminating against large families, with Gafni threatening to block the entire plan if changes weren’t made.

“Families with many children don’t have to lose out for having many children,” Zohar said, who himself is the father of four children. Israelis have more children than any other Western country in the world, with even secular Israelis commonly having up to four children.

The expanded plan still needs to be approved by the Knesset.

Although previous reports said that the government is planning on depositing the money in bank accounts this week, new reports say the funds won’t be deposited before Sunday, and since all the funds will not be deposited in one day, some will receive it later than Sunday.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)