Knesset Asks High Court to Unfreeze Five Budget Transfers

The Knesset asked the High Court on Sunday to let five frozen budget transfers proceed ahead of a Tuesday hearing. Justice Alex Stein halted nearly all the transfers on August 5 after questions over how the Finance Committee was convened, while allowing one civilian-emergency allocation. The legislature argues Speaker Amir Ohana lawfully authorized the August 4 meeting under a separate “special cases” provision after the coalition-opposition Coordination Committee declined to convene again. The approved requests include about NIS 268 million in coalition funds within an Education Ministry transfer, NIS 125 million for the National Missions Ministry and roughly NIS 78 million for Religious Services; hundreds of millions of shekels remain frozen.