Netanyahu said promising to fund Haredi schools that don’t teach secular subjects

Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly promises funding for ultra-Orthodox schools that don’t teach the state’s curriculum of secular subjects if he returns to power.

Ynet reports that Netanyahu made the pledge as he brokered a deal for the Hasidic party Agudat Yisrael and the non-Hasidic Degel HaTorah to run together again as the ultra-Orthodox political party United Torah Judaism.

But the parties had been mulling separate runs this year amid a dispute over an agreement by the Belz Hasidim, part of Agudat Yisrael, to allow the study of some secular subjects in their schools in exchange for increased state funding.

Reports say Netanyahu offered to match the state funding for schools that choose not to teach the so-called secular core curriculum.

State funding had been offered as an incentive to ultra-Orthodox schools to teach secular subjects so that students could graduate with skills needed to enter the workforce.

Netanyahu was concerned that one or both parties would fail to cross the election threshold in separate runs, damaging his chances of clinching a majority coalition in the 120-seat Knesset