"The Finance Ministry cut the yeshiva budget by over 50
percent. The Welfare Ministry's dormitory budget [which
supports the yeshiva ketanos] was also cut by over 50
percent. The same with the budget for the talmudei
Torah and the budget for school busing. They took an
entire sector and cut [its budget funding] in half. They
executed a strategic cut. Not to speak of how this sector was
seriously harmed by the cut in other matters such as health
care, welfare and more."
MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni made these forceful remarks during a
Knesset plenum session as he presented UTJ's no-confidence
motion last Monday in response to the slashing of the budget
for yeshivas and other Torah institutions in the 2007
budget.
The coalition easily defeated the motion with 53 no-votes by
coalition members, including Shas representatives. Twenty-six
MKs voted in favor and three abstained. UTJ expressed
surprise and anger over the vote by the Shas MKs on a matter
so crucial to the chareidi public and the Torah world.
Rabbi Gafni said UTJ's representatives were dismayed as soon
as they laid eyes on the budget books tabled in the Knesset
last week by a government that speaks of compassion and which
is comprised of several parties that emphasize social
affairs. "It's hard to believe a coalition like this can
submit such a budget book to the Knesset," he said. "This
budget creates medical treatment for the rich and education
for the rich." He also censured Shas, asking how they could
vote in favor of such a budget.
Rabbi Gafni said he realizes the answer to his criticism will
be that between the first reading and the second and third
Knesset readings, negotiations will be conducted with the
Finance Ministry that will restore the funding to the
yeshivas and the Torah institutions. Still those negotiations
usually stir great incitement against the chareidi public, he
said, because the negotiations inevitably begin with talks
over the yeshiva budgets, even though the budget book
includes significant cuts in welfare, health care, education,
etc.
"And then they will have to transfer hundreds of millions to
the budgets for the yeshivas and Torah institutions, and I
can already see how it will be portrayed in the newspaper
headlines — that at a time when funds are taken away
from health care, education and welfare we are demanding
hundreds of millions for yeshivas. And you will be
responsible for this incitement," he told Shas.
