The High Court of Justice on Wednesday issued an order temporarily blocking the transfer of some NIS 1 billion ($314 million) to ultra-Orthodox schools, accused of not teaching core curriculum subjects as required by law, sparking fury among Haredi lawmakers.

The court’s interim injunction came in response to a petition against the transfer submitted by lawmakers from the opposition’s Yesh Atid party.

The transfer was approved by the coalition-controlled Finance Committee of the Knesset last week.

The court injunction issued by Justice Yael Willner said that a panel of judges will hold a hearing on the petition by January 8, 2026. The Finance Committee, the Education Ministry and the Finance Ministry will have until then to submit a response to the petition justifying the transfer of funds to the schools in question.

Reacting to the ruling, ultra-Orthodox parties accused the High Court of “antisemitic harassment,” “holding the Haredi public hostage,” and “declaring war” on the entire community.

The Shas party likened the judges to “a dangerous band of arsonists who, in their desperate struggle to save their crumbling rule, have chosen to take the ultra-Orthodox public hostage.”

The party accused the court of “stealing the daily bread of young children” and called on “Jews around the world to raise an outcry against this antisemitic harassment.”

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.

MK Moshe Gafni, who chairs the Degel Hatorah faction of the United Torah Judaism party, insisted that the funds were “transferred legally, in accordance with accepted procedure and the required approvals.”

“The court has declared war on the ultra-Orthodox public,” he said, referring to the judges and petitioners as “wicked” and “determined to harm the livelihood of teaching staff and the entire system.”

UTJ chair MK Rabbi Yitzhak Goldknopf also likened yeshiva........

© The Times of Israel