The Knesset’s legal advisor, Sagit Afik, sent a sharply worded letter to the Finance Ministry, published on Sunday, demanding a full breakdown of all funds transferred without the approval of the Knesset Finance Committee over the past five years.
The letter was sent on Thursday following a High Court of Justice hearing on petitions challenging the government’s transfer of more than NIS 1 billion in earmarked funds to haredi schools.
During the hearing, the state acknowledged that most of the funds had already been transferred before the Finance Committee voted to approve the reallocations in December.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) expressed support for Afik’s demand to investigate the government going back five years.
“I am reinforcing the Knesset legal advisor, who is joining the demand I submitted on Friday to the accountant general in a demand to receive all the details of the budgetary transfers in recent years with the aim of exposing the corrupt system,” he stated.
“We will not stop fighting for the money of the Israeli taxpayer,” Lapid said.
The High Court case on the haredi fund transfer was brought by Hiddush – Freedom of Religion and Equality, together with Democrats MK Naama Lazimi, and was consolidated with a separate petition filed by Yesh Atid.
Lapid and fellow Yesh Atid MKs Vladimir Beliak, Moshe Tur-Paz, and Naor Shiri filed their petition seeking High Court intervention over the budgetary reallocations approved in late December.
Lapid accuses government of fraud
The petitions challenged the Finance Committee’s approval of transfers totaling roughly NIS 800 million to the main party-affiliated haredi school networks, part of a broader package of reallocations to religious education frameworks exceeding NIS 1 billion.
Following the committee meeting, Lapid accused the government of committing fraud and called for Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and other officials to be summoned for questioning.
“MKs voted on budget transfers long after the money had already been transferred,” Lapid said.
“That is against the law. What was revealed today at the High Court is nothing short of an earthquake. The government is systematically deceiving the public.”
“This is fraud, and fraud must be investigated,” he said. “Any government accountant who approved these transfers needs to know that they will eventually end up in an interrogation room and will have to explain why they agreed to transfer the money.”
Sarah Ben-Nun contributed to this report.