MK Naama Lazimi Files Supreme Court Petition to Halt Coalition Budget Transfers During Election Recess

MK Naama Lazimi of the Democratic Camp and attorney Yifat Solel submitted a petition to Israel's Supreme Court on Tuesday on behalf of the NGO Hadash, seeking an injunction to stop the Finance Committee meeting scheduled to approve coalition budget transfers exceeding 360 million shekels. The petition argues that the meeting violates legal provisions and Knesset decisions during the election recess period. It requests either a full injunction against convening the meeting or an interim order preventing the approval of the funds if the meeting proceeds.

The petition follows Finance Committee Chairman MK Hanoch Milwitsky's refusal to cancel the meeting despite a warning letter. It claims the meeting breaches the law and Knesset rules, which permit only one Finance Committee session during the first two weeks of the recess, a session held on July 29 that ended without approving any budget transfers. The petition also highlights that the proposed transfers include about 280 million shekels to ultra-Orthodox and religious educational institutions, which were not discussed before the recess began.

MK Lazimi condemned the coalition's actions as a "daylight robbery" of public funds, accusing the outgoing coalition of diverting hundreds of millions of shekels away from essential sectors like welfare, health, and reservists to political cronies as election bribes. She vowed to fight to prevent these transfers until a new responsible government is elected. Attorney Solel criticized the Finance Committee chairman for ignoring legal constraints and attempting to continue misappropriating public funds during the recess, emphasizing the necessity of judicial intervention to restrain the outgoing government representatives in the Knesset.