High Court Freezes Coalition Funds for Haredi Institutions Over ‘Procedural Flaws’

Israel’s High Court of Justice issued a temporary order today (Wednesday) freezing the budget transfers approved yesterday by the Knesset Finance Committee, with the exception of funding related to civilian emergency expenses. In its decision, the court said the order was issued “in light of the apparent procedural flaws in the conduct of the Knesset Finance Committee’s discussion,” pending review of the petition filed on the matter.

According to Justice Alex Stein’s decision, the petition will soon be heard by a panel of three justices. The respondents were also ordered to submit their preliminary responses both to the petition itself and to the request for an interim order “no later than 48 hours before the date set for the hearing on the petition.”

Finance Committee Chair MK Hanoch Milwidsky attacked the Supreme Court: “Yesterday it was Justice Solberg, and today Justice Stein. Both entered the Supreme Court as ‘conservatives,’ but the High Court cannot be fixed. The High Court must be shut down—the solution is a constitutional court.”

Constitution Committee Chair MK Simcha Rothman also spoke out against the decision. In his words, “Alex Stein is not a judge. He is a full-fledged politician.” Rothman added that if there were indeed procedural flaws in the Finance Committee meeting, they were “identical for all the transfers made yesterday,” and argued that the court chose to freeze only the transfers “it disagrees with for political reasons.”

Rothman later intensified his criticism of the court, writing: “This is not how a court operates. This is how the High Court party operates. This is the swan song of the judicial pirates. These elections are about the question of who will replace Stein and the rest of his party members and restore sanity to the country.”

The Shas party responded to the decision: “Once again, the High Court has proven that it has become a branch of the opposition, trampling the Knesset with a heavy foot. Its decision to freeze budget transfers lawfully approved by the Finance Committee is a serious blow to democracy and to the will of the legislature. The hypocrisy is glaring: As MK Yinon Azoulay revealed, the previous government transferred coalition funds in the same manner about a week before the elections—and the High Court did not intervene. Neither the law nor the procedure changed. Only the identity of the government and the public receiving the budgets changed. When it comes to the children of the Haredi public, suddenly the rules of the game change. It is disgraceful.”

The temporary order came just one day after the court rejected an earlier request by the petitioners to stop the Finance Committee from convening before its meeting took place. Last night, Justice Stein rejected a request by the Hiddush organization and MK Naama Lazimi to prevent the meeting from being held, but has now ordered its results frozen pending further legal proceedings.

In their petition, the petitioners argued that the Finance Committee convened during the election recess to discuss dozens of budget transfers, including coalition funds totaling hundreds of millions of shekels. They argued that advancing budget transfers of this kind during an election period violates the duty of restraint imposed on the government and coalition, which requires them to avoid making unusual decisions at such a time.

The petitioners also argued that the committee’s very convening did not comply with the rules governing the work of Knesset committees during recess. Among other claims, they said the agenda was provided on short notice, approval from the Agreements Committee was not obtained, and no orderly discussion was held on whether there was justification for convening the committee. The petition also noted that the meeting addressed budget transfers to the Defense Ministry, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Education Ministry, and the Ministry of Religious Services.