The Kosel Rav, HaRav Shmuel Rabinowitz, who also serves on the committee overseeing the maintenance of holy sites throughout Israel, issued a warning on Thursday amid the crisis caused by the High Court decision last week freezing funding transfers approved by the Knesset Finance Committee for religious needs and Chareidi educational networks.

Following a temporary court order delaying budget transfers approved by the Knesset Finance Committee, Religious Services Ministry Director-General Yehuda Avidan announced earlier this week that, in the absence of a budgetary source for ongoing operations, all services provided by the National Center for the Development of Holy Sites will be halted at the beginning of September.

The budget crisis threatens to cause an operational collapse and the closure of holy sites ahead of Selichos and the Yamim Noraim. The result, officials warn, would pose a genuine risk of pikuach nefesh at the kever of Rashbi in Meron and at other holy sites.

“The situation at the holy sites has reached a red line,” officials at the Religious Services Ministry said.

In response, Rav Rabinowitz sent a letter to Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon, issuing an ultimatum that if the budget for the National Center for the Development of Holy Sites is not resolved, he will step down from the “Vaadas HaChamisha” — the body charged by the state with managing the Rashbi complex on Har Meron and other holy sites.

In his letter, HaRav Rabinowitz issued a stark warning to Limon, stating unequivocally that the situation constitutes pikuach nefesh without exaggeration — both at the Rashbi complex and at other holy sites.

“Just five years after the devastating Meron disaster, hundreds of thousands of mispallelim are expected to visit ahead of the days of Selichos and the Yamim Noraim,” he wrote. “Operating such a complex and sensitive site without an approved budget and stable management would pose serious safety and security risks.”

Rav Rabinowitz continued by writing that as the chairman of the Committee of Five, unless the budget is immediately resolved and the current deadlock is broken, it will be impossible for him to shoulder the heavy responsibility, and he will be forced to resign from his position immediately.

He ended his letter with a sharp warning: paralyzing the National Center for the Development of Holy Sites ahead of the Yamim Tovim will jeopardize the safety and security of hundreds of thousands of visitors. Urgent legal and budgetary intervention is the only way to prevent that outcome.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)