The opposition mistakenly voted in favor of amendments to the 2026 state budget that would allocate hundreds of millions of extra shekels to haredi (ultra-Orthodox) institutions, following a last-minute maneuver by the coalition in the Knesset plenum late Sunday night.
Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara directed on Monday that the transfer of funds to haredi institutions be halted and that the transfers were unlawful.
The opposition had mistakenly voted in favor of the coalition amendments, which added an estimated NIS 800 million to haredi institutions, without realizing they had been added.
One of the amendments was passed with a rare majority of 109 lawmakers.
These allocations to haredi institutions, which the coalition added at the last moment, had previously been blocked by legal advisors and were not fully legalized beforehand.
The chairperson of the Degel HaTorah faction within the haredi United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party responded to the attorney general that the budget was approved “lawfully and properly, by an unprecedented majority.”
“Gali Baharav-Miara has no authority to intervene; this is criminal conduct by any standard, and her hostility toward the haredi public is clear for all to see. Of the 10 measures of hatred that descended upon the world, she took nine,” he added.
MKs offer apologies for mistake
Some opposition lawmakers issued apologies throughout Monday for failing to catch the coalition’s maneuver during the vote.
MK Vladimir Beliak (Yesh Atid) admitted in an X/Twitter post, “We erred in two votes. I admit it. In good faith. In any case, they had a majority.”
MK Orit Farkash-Hacohen (Blue and White) said that “there was a mistake; out of thousands of amendments, we voted on two from the coalition.”
“They have a majority with or without the opposition. This money is illegal, it was decided in the budget but was not approved in the [Knesset] Finance Committee, “ Farkash-Hacohen said in a Monday Army radio interview.
Opposition coordinator MK Merav Ben-Ari (Yesh Atid) sent an apology to fellow faction lawmakers on Monday, taking responsibility for the mistake.
“I want to apologize to all of you for yesterday. This was entirely my responsibility,” Ben-Ari wrote.
“It took me about two minutes to understand, and that’s why we opposed the rest. This is my ninth budget; I’ve handled thousands of amendments, and this time I wasn’t alert, and I made a mistake.”
Opposition leader Yair Lapid stated in a Knesset press conference after the vote on Monday that “the late-night maneuver by the haredi parties has been invalidated; the money has been frozen.”
“Following Yesh Atid’s appeal to the attorney general, she instructed that all the illegal funds approved overnight be halted and is demanding further steps against draft evaders.”
Lapid vowed that the money would not go through, calling the approved budget “theft in the night.”