Education Minister Limor Livnat told a Knesset plenum that
she supports transferring advance funding for chareidi
cultural organizations and promised to evaluate why these
allocations from the 2003 budget have been delayed.
In response to a question by MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni, Ms. Livnat
said that on the last night of 2002, new criteria for the
distribution of chareidi cultural funding were finalized
based on directives from the Attorney General. "But
apparently there are other problems and therefore the money
has not yet been distributed," she explained. "Nonetheless in
my opinion the advance funding should be given in any case to
the extent possible. I promise to assess this and investigate
why the advances were not given, because according to my
understanding the advances should be given. There are more
than a few cases in which there is a problem [in meeting] the
criteria and therefore the money cannot be distributed
further."
MK Gafni complained that since the beginning of 2003,
chareidi cultural organizations have yet to receive a single
shekel. As a result people have not received wages for the
past two months, said Gafni, noting similar problems last
year. In such situations the standard procedure is to at
least issue advances against the final budgets.
He also raised the issue of the Chinuch Atzmai school in
Kadima, which received a notice from the Education Ministry
that it would not be granted a license for next year although
it has had a license for years. "Apparently there is somebody
there who wants to [institute] apartheid by ensuring there is
no chareidi school. This is a school with all of the permits
in order."
MK Ilan Shalgi (Shinui) claimed the directive might have been
issued because children are bused in from the outside,
whereas local children do not study there. Ms. Livnat also
defended the Ministry's decision saying, "The Ministry
probably informed [the school] why it was not granting a
license," adding that she would update herself on the details
of the case.
