Far-right Avi Maoz threatens to resign as deputy minister, oppose ‘discriminatory’ budget

By Sam Sokol 19 March 2025, 7:06 pm

5 Edit

Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"

Noam party head Avi Maoz speaks during his faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, January 30, 2023. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Deputy Minister Avi Maoz reiterates his intention to vote against the 2025 state budget in the Knesset this evening and threatens to resign over what he describes as discrimination against religious Zionist educational institutions.

In a video posted to Twitter, the far-right politician, the sole lawmaker representing the anti-LGBTQ Noam party, complains that national religious IDF reservists who have fought for months on end have to “pay a fortune for their children’s education, which was supposed to be included in the The Free Compulsory Education Law.”

Stating that he “can no longer remain silent in the face of the ongoing harm” to reservists, he says that he will both vote against the budget and will resign if this “injustice is not corrected by Monday.”

Maoz reiterates his threat during a plenum discussion ahead of the budget vote.

Speaking with Radio Kol Chai last week, Maoz said that “it doesn’t make sense for me to save the government, only for my voters to end up deprived.”