From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, August 19, 2025
Gafni hints he will vote against defense budget boost to protest Haredi school cuts
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam 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"
United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni appears to threaten to vote against increases to the defense budget, following reports that the government intends to cut millions of shekels set aside for Haredi education.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is set to approve an NIS 31 billion ($9 billion) increase to the 2025 state budget today. According to the Kan public broadcaster, an increase in defense spending will be coupled with across-the-board cuts to ministerial budgets (save for the Defense Ministry).
Those cuts include most of the funds set aside for Haredi schools’ eventual inclusion in the government’s New Horizon program, which funds work in small groups between teachers and pupils and bumps up teacher salaries, among other initiatives.
The program is currently restricted to state schools and does not apply to independent Haredi institutions, which do not teach secular subjects. The money is currently frozen until it can eventually be allocated.
Cutting these funds violates commitments by the coalition and “we will continue to fight with all our strength to protect the rights to which Haredi educators are entitled,” says Gafni, who recently stepped down as the chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee after his party left the coalition over a dispute regarding the conscription of ultra-Orthodox men.
“In parallel, next month, when the defense budget comes up for approval in the Knesset and the Finance Committee, which is supposed to be approved today in the cabinet meeting, we will consult the great Torah sages on how to vote, in light of all the recent developments,” he adds.
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