Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called out state funding of 653,000 shekels annually to Rabbi Yosef Aryeh Yizdi, who recently cursed IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi. Bennett said the payments come from taxpayers and vowed to end them in the next government, framing it as a compact: "Not Zionist — not at my expense."
Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett issued a pointed statement Tuesday morning criticizing the annual state funding of 653,000 shekels to Rabbi Yosef Aryeh Yizdi of the "Kolel" institution, after Yizdi recently directed a curse at IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi. Bennett argued that taxpayers are effectively paying the salary of someone who acts against the state's founding values.
The statement follows a report by journalist Yoeli Brim, which The Zioneer covered earlier today, revealing that Yizdi received over 653,000 shekels from state coffers in the past year — and over ten million shekels in the past decade — despite his inflammatory rhetoric against top military officials.
Bennett, who has long argued that anti-Zionist elements receive public funding, framed the issue as a broken social contract: "In the next government, we will put an end to this." He did not specify a legislative mechanism, but his remarks continue a thread of criticism against state-funded institutions that, in his view, undermine national resilience and respect for the IDF chain of command.
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