As Israel heads toward early elections, the government is working to push through a sweeping five-year plan that would funnel hundreds of millions of shekels to the chareidi community, according to reports from Hebrew-language media.
The plan, as reported by Kan public broadcaster, would allocate 25 percent of the Education Ministry’s construction budget to the chareidi education system. An additional 44 million shekel annual budget would be set aside for programs aimed at keeping yungeleit in yeshiva and out of the IDF draft, along with tens of millions more each year for professional training programs and chareidi tourism initiatives.
The government is reportedly pushing to finalize the plan before elections are called.
The announcement comes amid fast-moving political developments in the Knesset. Netanyahu’s coalition submitted a bill Wednesday to dissolve the Knesset and trigger new elections, following an ultimatum from Degel HaTorah, which had threatened to push for early elections if the coalition failed to pass a draft exemption law for yeshiva bochurim. If the dissolution bill passes, elections would be held within five months, meaning no later than late October, with the chareidi parties reportedly pushing for an early September date.
The new funding plan is the latest in a series of major government allocations to chareidi mosdos. In recent months, Netanyahu’s government has directed billions of shekels toward chareidi education, drawing fierce opposition from secular parties and legal challenges from the High Court of Justice. Last month, the Knesset Finance Committee approved nearly NIS 100 million in additional funding for chareidi schools, part of a larger NIS 1 billion transfer that the High Court had frozen in December.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
