Due to the freeze of coalition funds: State-religious education threatens not to open the school year
The State-Religious Education Forum threatens not to open the upcoming school year in hundreds of yeshivas and ulpanas, due to the High Court's freeze on coalition funds, which it says creates a cash flow difficulty of 34.6 million shekels.
The State-Religious Education Forum, which includes the Noam, Tzviah, and Bnei Akiva networks, threatens not to open the upcoming school year in hundreds of yeshivas and ulpanas of the Religious Zionist education system. The threat stems from the High Court's freeze on coalition funds, which the networks say creates an immediate cash flow difficulty of 34.6 million shekels. The networks sent a letter to Education Minister Yoav Kisch, senior ministry officials, the Finance Ministry, and the legal counsel, accompanied by a legal opinion from former Deputy Attorney General Adv. Raz Nizri, Adv. Avinoam Segal Elad, and Adv. Nadim Aboud. The opinion states that continued freezing could harm the institutions' ability to prepare for the opening of the year, with all that entails for thousands of students and educational staff. The networks argue that the frozen budget is not an additional budget, but one that has been allocated to them for over 50 years through the Ministry of Religious Affairs, and has moved in recent years to the Ministry of Education. Based on it, work plans were built, staff were employed, and financial commitments were undertaken. The threat comes after the High Court released tens of millions of shekels that were frozen for the Ministry of Religious Affairs, which claimed it would have to close religious sites. Government ministries assess this as an attempt to pressure the High Court. Treasury officials side with the networks' claims, saying the High Court order leads to impossible consequences of stopping payments.