Ultra-Orthodox parties accuse High Court of antisemitism, ‘war on Haredi public’ after blocking fund transfer to schools

By Ariela Karmel

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31 December 2025, 8:01 pm

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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.

Ultra-Orthodox parties accuse the High Court of “antisemitic harassment,” “holding the Haredi public hostage,” and “declaring war” on the entire community, following the court’s decision to temporarily block the transfer of some NIS 1 billion ($314 million) to ultra-Orthodox schools that are accused of not teaching the core curriculum subjects to students as required by law.

The Haredi Shas party likens the judges to “a dangerous band of arsonists who, in their desperate struggle to save their crumbling rule, have chosen to take the ultra-Orthodox public hostage.”

The party accuses the court of “stealing the daily bread of young children” and “calls on Jews around the world to raise an outcry against this antisemitic harassment.”

In a separate statement, Shas says its chairman, Aryeh Deri, held an urgent phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to express his outrage over the court injunction.

Deri told Netanyahu that he expected the entire coalition to rally in support of the Haredi schools barred from funding, the Shas statement says, adding that the premier backed Deri’s stance.

The court’s interim injunction is in response to a petition submitted by lawmakers from the opposition’s Yesh Atid party against the transfer approved by the coalition-controlled Knesset Finance Committee last week.

Yesh Atid celebrates the decision, saying in a statement that the party expects the decision to”deepen the crisis within the coalition” amid the ongoing efforts to pass both a 2026 state budget and draft regulation law for yeshiva students.

“The ultra-Orthodox, too, are not exempt from the laws of the state,” says Yesh Atid chair Yair Lapid. “Anyone who wants to receive public funding will have to teach the core curriculum and submit to appropriate oversight. You will not take the money of reservists and taxpayers and use it to preach against enlistment and deny ultra-Orthodox young people the opportunity to acquire tools for the job market.

MK Moshe Gafni, who chairs the Degel Hatorah faction of the ultra-Orthodox party United Torah Judaism, insists that the funds were “transferred legally, in accordance with accepted procedure and the required approvals.”

“The court has declared war on the ultra-Orthodox public,” he says, referring to the judges and petitioners as “wicked” and “determined to harm the livelihood of teaching staff and the entire system.”

UTJ chair MK Rabbi Yitzhak Goldknopf again likens yeshiva students to hostages, saying that his party “will not accept making hundreds of thousands of [yeshiva] students into hostages to baseless petitions for propaganda purposes.”

“We will continue to fight with all the tools at our disposal to ensure equality for every child in Israel,” he says.