A heated confrontation erupted during a meeting of the Knesset Finance Committee on Tuesday, when opposition lawmakers criticized the committee for convening during the election period, arguing that the transfer of funds to the Chareidi community amounted to “election bribery.”

The meeting relied on a legal provision, which Yesh Atid MK Mickey Levy claimed ‘hasn’t been used for 20 years.” In response, Shas MK Yinon Azoulay produced Knesset committee records that showed the opposition had relied on the very same provision just one week before the last election during the Bennett-Lapid government, when Levy himself served as Knesset Speaker. During that meeting, coalition funds were approved for the Yesh Atid, Yamina, and Yisrael Beiteinu parties.

Azoulay said: “So what changed? Not the law, not the provision, and not the procedure—only the identity of the government. What was considered completely legitimate when the Bennett-Lapid government did it has suddenly become ‘election bribery’ when the current government acts in the same way. That’s political hypocrisy.”

The revelation did not stop leftist lawmakers from petitioning the High Court, which froze the fund transfers on Wednesday.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)