Knesset meeting on compensation for businesses harmed in Iran war stymied by UTJ resignation

By Sam Sokol 15 July 2025, 1:16 pm

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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"

MK Moshe Gafni of United Torah Judaism's Degel HaTorah faction leads a Finance Committee meeting at the Knesset, on July 14, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The government’s compensation plan for businesses and workers harmed economically by last month’s war with Iran is currently stalled in the Knesset, following the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party’s exit from the coalition last night.

In the wake of his resignation, UTJ lawmaker and Knesset Finance Committee chairman Moshe Gafni failed to show up for this morning’s meeting on the compensation bill, taking participants in the scheduled discussion by surprise.

Without Gafni, the parliamentary panel has no chairman, and the discussion of the bill cannot move forward, causing what committee member MK Vladimir Beliak (Yesh Atid) calls “an absurd and unprecedented situation.”

“Representatives from government ministries, the business sector, and opposition members arrived this morning for a discussion on the compensation outline for businesses. But here’s the thing: committee chairman Gafni resigned overnight, didn’t cancel the meeting, and currently, no one has the authority to lead the committee,” Beliak tweets.

The discussion cannot advance until the Knesset House Committee appoints a new chairman, which is unlikely to happen today, meaning that “the Knesset is paralyzed,” the Yesh Atid MK declares.

Any delay in approving the measure in the committee could result in a failure to pass the compensation bill before the end of the summer legislative session, which wraps up on July 27.

UTJ quit both the government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition yesterday as part of an ongoing struggle over the conscription of yeshiva students. Following the move, multiple Knesset committees headed by the party’s lawmakers canceled their hearings for today.