From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, July 28, 2026
Knesset Finance Committee set to approve additional hundreds of millions for settlements, Haredi schools despite recess
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleAriela Karmel is a political correspondent at The Times of Israel. She previously reported for Calcalist and Haaretz. She holds an MA in Middle Eastern and African History from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia.
The Finance Committee is set to convene tomorrow to approve additional budget transfers totaling hundreds of millions of shekels, including substantial funding for ultra-Orthodox education and West Bank settlements, despite the Knesset having dissolved nearly two weeks ago, prompting opposition parties to accuse the government of trying to shore up its coalition ahead of the October 27 election by doling out public funds to political allies.
The transfers include approximately NIS 241 million ($80 million) for the Settlements Ministry, led by Religious Zionism MK Orit Strock, including about NIS 124 million ($41 million) in coalition funds. This includes, according to Hebrew media reports, NIS 67.5 million ($22.4 million) for programs serving so-called “hilltop youth,” a term for settler youths who take part on a near-daily basis in a variety of violent attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank.
The budget transfer requests also include more than NIS 284 million ($94 million) earmarked for Haredi education and related programs through the Education Ministry, including NIS 13.5 million ($4.5 million) to build Haredi schools and, according to Hebrew media, about NIS 26 million ($8.6 million) to prevent yeshiva students from dropping out and about NIS 18.5 million ($6.1 million) for Torah educational institutions.
This is in addition to NIS 16.5 million ($5.5 million) for summer programs in so-called exempt Haredi schools, which neither teach the core curriculum nor are subject to Education Ministry oversight, even though the Education Ministry explicitly forbids using public funds for such school systems.
The agenda also includes NIS 112.9 million ($37.4 million) for archaeology projects in the West Bank, of which NIS 51.9 million ($17.2 million) is identified as coalition funding. A further NIS 38.6 million ($12.8 million) in spending conditional on revenue is earmarked for infrastructure and archaeology in the West Bank, though the document does not specify how much of that amount is for archaeology.
Several opposition lawmakers who sit on the Finance Committee are appealing to Knesset Legal Adviser Sagit Afik to either halt or delay the transfers, including Yesh Atid MKs Vladimir Beliak and Naor Shiri. They argue that approving so many transfers, including hundreds of millions of shekels in coalition funds, during the election recess is an “unprecedented” move that amounts to “using public funds as election campaign funds,” and urge Afik to prevent what they describe as “looting of the public purse.”
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