Israeli government on Monday approved an austerity plan that will cut the ministries' budgets and raise the taxes to decrease the national deficit of the Jewish country.

The cabinet voted 20-to-9 in favor of the budget cut and the tax hike, which will increase the VAT by 1 percent and the taxes on employers and high-income earners respectively by 0.5 percent and 1 percent.

These moves are part of a series of steps that will, according to the government, boost the state's revenues by 3.5 billion U.S. dollars next year.

Another part of the austerity plan is to collect nearly 1 billion U.S. dollars from large corporations which are exempt from taxes.

Israeli treasury officials have said the cut is necessary to cover the government's new expenses, including its efforts to prevent African migrants' from entering the Jewish country and improve the firefighting services.

"This is a responsible step that will safeguard the Israeli economy and the citizens' jobs. Even after the approval of this package, weaker groups and the middle class will have more money in their pockets," Netanyahu said after the vote at the Knesset parliament.

"It must now be understood that the global economic crisis is not only not recovering, it is worsening, and as it worsens, we must take additional steps to protect the Israeli economy and Israelis' jobs," Netanyahu stressed.

Earlier on Monday, Netanyahu asserted that these adjustments will benefit the Israeli public in the long run.

"I know these moves aren't simple, but they are necessary, measured and needed in order to protect the Israeli economy and work places in Israel. That's what a responsible government does," Netanyahu said in a bid to promote his plan.

But Public Security minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch on Sunday harshly criticized these measures.

Aharonovitch warned that the planned cut in the ministry's budget will weaken the security on the streets and will ultimately harm the Israeli public.

"This cut is a definitive blow to the current working plans. It will harm the Israeli police. It will harm the personal security of each and every one of us," he said.

"It is inconceivable that the prime minister and finance minister will now deliver such a harsh blow to personal security and to the plans the prime minister himself authorized," he said.