The Shas party likened the judges to \u201ca dangerous band of arsonists who, in their desperate struggle to save their crumbling rule, have chosen to take the ultra-Orthodox public hostage.\u201d<\/p>\n
The party accused the court of \u201cstealing the daily bread of young children\u201d and called on \u201cJews around the world to raise an outcry against this antisemitic harassment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shas leader Aryeh Deri said he had spoken to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is in the US, expressing his anger to him and urging him to convene a ministerial committee on the issue as soon as he returns.<\/p>\n
MK Moshe Gafni, who chairs the Degel Hatorah faction of the United Torah Judaism party, insisted that the funds were \u201ctransferred legally, in accordance with accepted procedure and the required approvals.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t \u201cThe court has declared war on the ultra-Orthodox public,\u201d he said, referring to the judges and petitioners as \u201cwicked\u201d and \u201cdetermined to harm the livelihood of teaching staff and the entire system.\u201d<\/p>\n UTJ chair MK Rabbi Yitzhak Goldknopf also likened yeshiva students to \u201chostages\u201d to \u201cbaseless petitions intended for propaganda purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe will continue to fight with all the tools at our disposal to ensure equality for every child in Israel,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Yesh Atid celebrated the decision. \u201cThe ultra-Orthodox, too, are not exempt from the laws of the state,\u201d said Yesh Atid chair Yair Lapid. \u201cAnyone 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.<\/p>\n \t \u2018Circumvented all restrictions\u2019<\/p>\n The government had requested an extension earlier in the day to respond to the petition and \u201ccommitted that until a High Court ruling is issued, it would halt any further transfers of funds to Haredi educational institutions that are unsupervised and in violation of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n Yesh Atid, however, said this response reflected a dishonest tactic: \u201cWhile the petitioners were waiting for a response from the State, the latter acted to establish \u2018facts on the ground,\u2019 and some of the funding had already been transferred to ultra-Orthodox educational institutions,\u201d the party says.<\/p>\n The Finance Committee approved the transfer of NIS 786 million ($247 million) to school networks affiliated with the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties, and NIS 136 million ($43 million) to so-called \u201crecognized but unofficial\u201d schools, which commit to teaching 75 percent of the state-set core curriculum but in practice often do not. An additional NIS 151 million ($47 million) was also allocated to Talmud Torahs, which do not teach the core curriculum.<\/p>\n Yesh Atid said that the committee \u201ctook advantage of and circumvented all existing restrictions that prevent the transfer of budgets to institutions that are not supervised and do not teach core subjects,\u201d condemning what it described as \u201ca rotten, corrupt and wasteful government that does not count the citizens of Israel and sees our money as a bargaining chip and as political bribery to solve coalition problems.\u201d<\/p>\n The transfers \u201cwere made illegally and are null and void,\u201d the party argued.<\/p>\n This money is being stolen from the middle class and \u201ctransferred to ultra-Orthodox institutions in violation of the law, in an improper procedure, in an attempt to hide it from the public,\u201d Lapid told reporters when announcing<\/a> the petition on Monday.<\/p>\n \t In its petition, Yesh Atid argued that the committee had violated existing restrictions on funding unsupervised institutions that do not teach legally mandated secular studies in approving the transfers, while at the same time rejecting a Finance Ministry request to allocate budgets for additional school inspectors to ensure that Haredi educational institutions are complying with the law.<\/p>\n \u201cThe partisan ultra-Orthodox education system is raising a new generation of ignorant people and draft dodgers, and the continued funding of institutions that do not teach core curriculum subjects constitutes an existential threat to Israel\u2019s future as a strong and advanced state. This lawlessness must be stopped,\u201d Yesh Atid MK Vladimir Beliak told The Times of Israel.<\/p>\n According to fellow Yesh Atid MK Moshe Tur-Paz, the petition \u201cfocuses on noncompliance with the attorney general\u2019s guidelines, which required the return of funds to the state for failing to teach budgeted core curriculum studies.\u201d<\/p>\n UTJ\u2019s Goldknopf denounced Lapid, declaring in a statement that his actions \u201conce again prove that the only fuel driving him is hatred of the ultra-Orthodox.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe petition to the High Court is yet another attempt to harm the fundamental rights of hundreds of thousands of parents and children whose only sin is their desire to preserve their way of life and the traditions of their forefathers,\u201d said Goldknopf, adding that he was \u201cconfident that the court will reject this political attempt to interfere in the government\u2019s legitimate budgetary decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe will not allow Israel\u2019s ultra-Orthodox children to be turned into second-class citizens,\u201d he declared.<\/p>\n Hitting back, Lapid said that IDF conscription, the study of English and mathematics and raising children to be able to earn a living \u201cis not \u2018hatred of Haredim,’\u201d arguing that he was working to ensure \u201cthat every child in Israel \u2014 including Haredi children \u2014 receives what they deserve, namely a proper education that includes core curriculum studies.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt won\u2019t help you to shout \u2018hatred of Haredim\u2019 every time basic civic duties are demanded of you \u2014 duties that every Israeli citizen is required to fulfil,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tUTJ MKs Yitzhak Goldknopf and Moshe Gafni at the Knesset plenum, Jerusalem, September 29, 2025. (Oren Ben Hakoon\/Flash90)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/IMG_9490-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tOpposition Leader Yair Lapid addresses a weekly Yesh Atid faction meeting in the Knesset, on December 29, 2025. (Sam Sokol\/ The Times of Israel)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/D_ST3849-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tShas chairman Aryeh Deri in the Knesset plenum, March 31, 2025. (Dani Shem-Tov \/ Office of the Knesset Spokesperson)<\/p>\n
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