Justice Alex Stein's order froze all transfers approved Tuesday except for civilian emergency expenses, citing procedural flaws. The freeze follows the Finance Committee session that had been the subject of a petition by the Hiddush NGO.
Justice Alex Stein of the High Court of Justice on Wednesday carved out an exception to his earlier budget transfer freeze, explicitly exempting funding designated for civilian emergency expenses. The exception, added to the interim order issued earlier Wednesday, refines the sweeping freeze that had blocked all transfers approved by the Knesset Finance Committee on Tuesday.
The sequence of events began Tuesday when the Finance Committee, meeting after Stein rejected a petition by the Hiddush NGO to block the session, approved hundreds of millions of shekels in coalition transfers to Haredi parties and the Ministry of Settlement and National Missions. Shortly after the approvals, Stein issued an interim order freezing the transfers, citing procedural flaws. Over the course of Wednesday afternoon, the court's order was successively clarified: it covered coalition funds to Haredi parties, then extended to Judea and Samaria communities, and ultimately blocked most transfers for Haredi education and settlement ministries. The Haredi parties' election campaign responded with a statement thanking the court for the decision. The Shas faction, however, sharply condemned the freeze, calling the High Court a "branch of the opposition."
The court's intervention is the latest in a series of judicial-legislative confrontations. As The Zioneer has reported, the Knesset is set to convene in a special session to declare laws immune to High Court review, and the Knesset's legal advisor recently told the court that the arrest law for draft-dodging yeshiva students "apparently must be annulled." The budget freeze deepens tensions between the coalition and the judiciary, with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich previously accusing the High Court of having "lost all restraint."
The scope of the civilian emergency exemption has not been detailed, and further hearings on the matter are expected.
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