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Monday, March 23, 2026
Knesset legal department says Finance Ministry illegally transferred funds to ultra-Orthodox schools
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 Knesset legal department says that the Finance Ministry’s December approval of a NIS 1 billion ($315 million) transfer to ultra-Orthodox schools before receiving approval from the Knesset Finance Committee was illegal and that lawmakers and legal advisers were not informed the money had been distributed, in a statement ahead of a High Court of Justice hearing on the subject on Wednesday.
In a preliminary response to the High Court, the Knesset legal department says that “the manner in which the funds were transferred prior to Finance Committee approval is illegal.”
“The Knesset views with particular severity the fact that this was concealed from members of Knesset and from the legal advisory staff,” the letter continues.
The funds are at the center of an ongoing High Court case after petitions by the Yesh Atid party and the Hiddush religious freedom and equality organization argued the transfer was illegal because the ultra-Orthodox schools do not meet legal requirements to teach core subjects. The state admitted at a January High Court hearing that some 90 percent of the money had already been transferred before lawmakers formally approved the measure in late December.
The letter flatly rejects claims by the Finance Ministry that “the matter was understood by the committee” or that distributing funds before committee approval is “a common practice,” as also argued by the state’s representative at the High Court hearing.
The Knesset legal advisor notes that the Finance Ministry has not responded to repeated requests for information on the extent of the practice of distributing funds before committee approval.
In response to the letter, Yesh Atid MK Vladimir Beliak, one of the petitioners, says that, “The Netanyahu-Smotrich government acted in the shadows and used public funds as if they were its private coffers. This is blatant, systematic, and deliberate theft — corruption that cries out to the heavens.”
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