Lapid to petition High Court over funds for Haredi institutions OKed in overnight vote

By Sam Sokol 30 March 2026, 6:22 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"

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid leads a Yesh Atid faction meeting at the Knesset on March 23, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party will appeal to the High Court of Justice to prevent the transfer of approximately NIS 800 million ($255 million) for ultra-Orthodox programs and institutions that the opposition mistakingly voted for in a controversial overnight parliamentary maneuver.

Addressing reporters in the Knesset on Monday evening, Lapid says that the passage of the 2026 state budget last night was “the greatest theft in the history of the country” but that “that wasn’t enough” for the coalition, which “transferred hundreds of millions more to the Haredim through an illegal vote on an illegal amendment proposed by Coalition Chairman Ofir Katz.”

Yesh Atid subsequently wrote to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and Knesset legal advisor Sagit Afik regarding the matter, “the first step in our petition to the High Court of Justice against the illegal theft of funds for the Haredi parties.”

“Following our letter, the Attorney General froze the money for the Haredim. All professional ranks have received a clear directive not to transfer a single shekel. They need to know that we are tracking these budgets, and anyone who attempts to transfer them will face prosecution. We will stop this money. This money will not go through,” Lapid warns.

Because amendments are typically filed by the opposition as a procedural tactic to delay budget votes, opposition MKs appeared to treat the measure as routine and automatically backed it, failing to notice that the coalition was also supporting the amendment. The added funding ultimately passed by a lopsided 107–4 vote before lawmakers appeared to realize their error.

In total, according to a tally by Channel 13, the move boosted allocations to Haredi educational institutions by more than NIS 1 billion, from NIS 4.1 billion ($1.3 billion) to NIS 5.17 billion ($1.65 billion).