Knesset panel meets to discuss major budget transfers, mainly toward Haredi needs

By Ariela Karmel

You will receive email alerts from this author. Manage alert preferences on your profile page

You will no longer receive email alerts from this author. Manage alert preferences on your profile page

12 August 2025, 1:43 pm

1 Edit

Ariela 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 Finance Committee is convening to vote on a series of significant budget transfers, many earmarked for the ultra-Orthodox sector, as part of longstanding coalition agreements, even though the Haredi United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party left the coalition recently, and Shas is no longer part of the government.

Central to today’s agenda are Education Ministry transfers amounting to hundreds of millions of shekels to the Haredi school system. According to Hebrew media reports, about NIS 177 million ($52 million) are mapped for the operation of Haredi schools, including staff training and salaries, summer programs and transportation.

The ultra-Orthodox school system operates with limited state curriculum oversight, and schools vary in how much of that curriculum is taught, with only a small fraction of those that fail to teach core curriculum subjects as required by law facing any sanctions, according to a recent report by the Israel Democracy Institute.

The education transfers are part of a larger package of funds totalling roughly NIS 346 million ($101 million) requested by the Finance Ministry, mostly benefiting the Haredi and religious-Zionist sectors.

Opposition lawmakers argue these transfers prioritize political deals over urgent national needs amid wartime pressures and strained public services.

National Unity party MK Orit Farkash-Hacohen, who sits on the Finance Committee, sharply criticizes the committee for considering such transfers “in the middle of [Knesset] recess, on the eve of the [proposed] occupation of Gaza.”

The vote comes as the government announces plans to call up more reservists following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration of an impending takeover of Gaza City.

It also unfolds amid widespread outrage over the ousting of MK Yuli Edelstein from the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee — a move tied directly to his refusal to advance legislation exempting ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students from the military draft.