It was established to handle projected future windfall profits expected from the discovery of the Tamar and Leviathan gas fields.
Without the fund, the economy of Israel could in the future run the risk of so-called "Dutch disease".
The OECD estimates that its size by 2040 would be between 40 and US$175 billion (that is, between 10 and 50 percent of Israel's GDP), depending on the rate of new discoveries.
[6] In January 2022, Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman announced that the fund is expected to begin operating at the start of the fourth quarter of the year, when taxes on profits from natural gas and other resources reach a minimum level.
[7] By June 1, 2022 the fund had officially launched[8] as the levies collected breached the 1 billion shekel threshold.