At a recent session of the Knesset Finance Committee
discussing the Religious Affairs Ministry budget, MK Yigal
Bibi, Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs, demanded that
this budget be sent back to the Government.
At the beginning of the discussion, chairman of the Finance
Committee, MK Rabbi Avrohom Ravitz, noted that the Ministry's
budget had shrunk in real terms, and in many cases even in
nominal terms, and does not meet even the most minimal
religious needs. For example, the Torah culture department,
which received a budget of 67 million shekel in 1997, was
allotted only 37 million for 1999.
Rabbi Ravitz attacked the chairman of the Budget Department
of the Finance Ministry, David Milgrom who, in response to
the Attorney General's instructions, ordered funds to be
channeled from a budgetary basis to the general reserves
budget, thereby removing existing funds from the various
ministries. This was done due to the prohibition against
transferring budgets to institutions from two different
ministries which, in effect, lowers the allocations to Torah
and other public institutions.
Rabbi Ravitz stated, "This is a harsh decree which is liable
to cause a collapse of the yeshivas and cultural
organizations which disseminate Torah throughout the
country." He called upon Milgrom to reverse this decision,
noting that he had discussed the matter with the Prime
Minister, who ordered an investigation of the matter. Rabbi
Ravitz stressed to the Finance Ministry personnel at the
meeting that he will not allow this transfer to the general
reserve funds.
Deputy Religious Affairs Minister MK Yigal Bibi, attacked the
Attorney General's directive canceling the Government's
duplicate support of public institutions. He stressed that
neither the court nor the Attorney General are enforcement or
legislative authorities. There is a law as well as a budget,
and that the Government has the right to determine which
ministries will execute each and every issue, Bibi
explained.
The second Deputy Religious Affairs Minister, MK Rabbi Arye
Gamliel, said that there are certain factors wishing to
paralyze the Religious Affairs Ministry, and that the budget
of the Ministry is neither genuine nor realistic. Citing an
example, he pointed to the fact that the Ministry
participates in only 5 percent of the expenses of the
country's synagogues.
MK Rabbi Shmuel Halpert also demanded that the budget be
returned to the Government, in order to rectify the erosion
in the yeshiva budgets, which require an additional 160
million shekel. The budget for Torah culture, he stressed,
should be 80 million shekel, and not 37 million.
MKs Beiga Shochat and Oron attacked the yeshivas and claimed
that the budget for the yeshivas is a political one. Shochat
claimed that "the yeshiva students live at the expense of the
public."
MK Rabbi Avrohom Ravitz reacted sharply to these remarks and
said: "The debate is totally ideological. I don't know any
kollel or yeshiva student who could be persuaded to
leave the Torah world and join the labor market just because
of a reduction in the budget. A decrease in the yeshiva
students' financial allotments will not lead to a decrease of
the numbers of those who study Torah. Instead, the circle of
poverty will deepen and grow wider."
