In 2010, 1.05 billion shekels (NIS) worth of allocations were added onto
the budget, specifically for religious purposes, which is almost four
times more than the budget of the Ministry of Religious Services in that
same year. In 2011, the amount came close to NIS 850 million, of which
NIS 140 million were categorized by the committee as "For Gafni
Coalition Use," referring to the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism
member and Chair of the Knesset Finance Committee, Moshe Gafni. These
additional allocations were not included in the budget originally
approved by the Knesset, nor did they require approval from any
government body besides the Finance Committee Gafni controls.
1 shekel equals 27 US cents. The total amount allocated in this way is therefore $280 million. The following is a press release from Hiddush, the religious freedom group that did the study allegedly uncovering the funding:
Hiddush Reports: Hiddush reports: Additions for Religious Purposes to the National Budget Comes out to More than NIS 1 billion per Year
Hiddush- Freedom of Religion for Israel completed a comprehensive investigation focusing on internal changes to the national budget through the Knesset's Finance Committee. The report found that a significant amount of funds were added onto the budget without any external supervision.
In 2010, 1.05 billion shekels (NIS) worth of allocations were added onto the budget, specifically for religious purposes, which is almost four times more than the budget of the Ministry of Religious Services in that same year. In 2011, the amount came close to NIS 850 million, of which NIS 140 million were categorized by the committee as "For Gafni Coalition Use," referring to the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism member and Chair of the Knesset Finance Committee, Moshe Gafni. These additional allocations were not included in the budget originally approved by the Knesset, nor did they require approval from any government body besides the Finance Committee. Throughout the fiscal year, the Knesset Finance Committee receives thousands of requests for fund transfers and budget additions. The Finance Committee can grant additional allocations to the budget based on requests without external approval. There has been a large amount of criticism surrounding the current system because each year the national budget comes out to be much larger than the Knesset-approved budget; there is very little supervision in approving who receives additional funding. In 2010 alone, NIS 328 million added onto the budget was categorized by the treasury as "Coalition Use," " Gafni Coalition Use," and "UTJ Coalition Use." In 2011, there was a decline in NIS 119 million in the allocations that were categorized under the any of the terms "Coalition Use."Shockingly, the amount of allocations that were categorized as "Gafni Coalition Use" jumped almost three times as much from NIS 46 million in 2010 to NIS 124 million in 2011.
"The Ministry of Finance at least did us a favor and categorized parts of the allocations under names like "Gafni Coalition" or "Shas coalition" so that we know exactly who plundered the public's piggy bank."
Hiddush President, Rabbi Uri Regev commented on the report, saying, "For the last 35 years, the Chairs of the Finance Committee, who traditionally come from an ultra-Orthodox party, have turned the Knesset Finance Committee into a personal ATM connected directly to the tax payer's pocket. A grotesque amount of funds are transferred without any real public supervision. For years, the Israeli government not only has let the ultra-Orthodox skim its budget, but continued to provide with more and more internal transfers. They have sold the future of the State to the ultra-Orthodox parties in exchange for obedient support in the coalition." Rabbi Regev continued, "The Ministry of Finance at least did us a favor and categorized parts of the allocations under names like "Gafni Coalition" or "Shas coalition" so that we know exactly who plundered the public's piggy bank. In the last elections, the public has spoken and called for a Civil Zionist government. We must expect that Yair Lapid and Avigdor Lieberman will stand by their word and insist that the next chair of the Knesset Finance Committee will not be a sectarian politician. We need to free the Finance Committee from its imprisonment and now is the perfect opportunity to do so."