‘It was a trick’: High Court justice rails against transfer of funds to Haredi schools before legal okay

The High Court of Justice tears into the state’s arguments over a recent transfer of funds to ultra-Orthodox schools that was implemented without a hearing and vote in the Knesset Finance Committee, and says the transfer was illegal.

Justice Yael Willner asks under what authority the funds were transferred without the committee’s approval, to which state representative Neta Oren responds that it is a “practice” that is done occasionally.

Justice Ofer Grosskopf demands to know if anyone gave legal authorization for such a “practice,” to which Oren says she is unsure.

“This was a mock hearing,” declares Willner of a Finance Committee hearing in which a vote on the transfer of funds was held after the funds had already been transferred.

“There is no such thing as a body that approves funds not knowing that it is approving a decision [that has already been made]. It has to know that a previous decision has been made, that it has already been done and executed, and that it is approving [that decision],” she continues.

“What happened in the Finance Committee is that the committee members did not know that the hearing was a mock hearing. That it’s a game… It was a trick. What is this?” she demands.

A representative for the Knesset’s legal department says the department is not familiar with any such practice and views the phenomenon “very gravely.”

Oren responds by saying that the state knows “this is an undesirable practice,” to which Willner responds: “It’s not ‘an undesirable practice,’ it’s an illegal practice. How can you transfer funds without a legal decision?”