The High Court of Justice on Tuesday gave the government until 8 a.m.  Wednesday to respond to a petition by Opposition Leader Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party demanding an “urgent interim injunction” against the transfer of some NIS 1 billion ($314 million) to ultra-Orthodox schools out of what is left of the 2025 state budget.

Last week, the Knesset Finance Committee approved the transfer of NIS 786 million ($247 million) to school networks affiliated with the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties, and NIS 136 million ($43 million) to so-called “recognized but unofficial” schools, which commit to teaching 75 percent of the state-set core curriculum but in practice often do not.

An additional NIS 151 million ($47 million) will also be allocated to Talmud Torahs, which do not teach the core curriculum.

In a statement, Yesh Atid said that the committee “took advantage of and circumvented all existing restrictions that prevent the transfer of budgets to institutions that are not supervised and do not teach core subjects,” condemning what it described as “a rotten, corrupt and wasteful government that does not count the citizens of Israel and sees our money as a bargaining chip and as political bribery to solve coalition problems.”

The transfers “were made illegally and are null and void,” the party argued.

This money is being stolen from the middle class and “transferred to ultra-Orthodox institutions in violation of the law, in an improper procedure, in an........

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