Israel – The Nahari law, intended to increase funding for Haredi education, passed an initial vote in the Knesset today.
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The law was introduced by United Torah Judaism, and has the support of the coalition.
MK Moshe Gafni and opposition MKs had a strongly worded debate before the law was voted on.
MK Ophir Pines warned that the law will help turn Israel into a religious state within 20 years.
I agree with Pines. If you read the legislation, it really does lock in long term subsidies for hareidi institutions that cannot be changed even if the economy in EY tanks completely and the government has to borrow (i.e. “print”) shekels to meet its obligations for these welfare payments. These long term entitlements will choke the Israeli economy, encourage more highly productive firms to move their operations offshore and feed inflation. Who will hire the hareidi bochurim since you cannot make a parnassah sitting in a kollel learning all day? The most non-productive segment of society is slowly bleeding those who add to the national economy. Shame on Netanyahu for caving into this political extortion.
#1 , are you serious?
Reply to #1 : You are so blinded by your hatred to Yiddishkeit that you are ignoring the facts. All such legislation does, is end decades of blatant discrimination against the non-government religious schools. Education funding should be allocated according to the number of students in a given school. Instead Haredi politicians were forced to haggle every year or so for what should have been rightfully coming to their sector. This was done so after they finally were awarded some scraps, compared to the state system, the Judaism hating pols and media could tar the Haredim as parasites and extortionists! Now we know who your bedfellows in hate are.
and what about the kibbutzim which are funded with government grants. that is definately a much bigger burden on the medina, considering the kibbutzim are dying out whilst the charedim are growing and thriving.
These negotiations were entered into by parties who made decisions of their own free well. No one is forced to do anything in the Israeli system. If you don’t like it, start a political party and make sure you get 61 seats. Then you won’t have to compromise with anyone. In the meantime, this is the system. It produces compromises. Deal with it.
My own personal feeling is that govenment should not be involved in education. Not in Israel and not in America. Private enterprise does everything (besides running the military) better than government.
“MK Ophir Pines warned that the law will help turn Israel into a religious state within 20 years.”
Omain! From his mouth to Hashem’s ears. For once this man gives blessings instead of curses!
#16 , there are religious state schools run and paid for by the government where students engage in 4-6 hours of talmud torah every day. This bill is designed to subsidise extremists who refuse to let there children learn even rudimentary mathematics, sciences, languages or anything else that could allow them to do anything other than sit in a kollel and live off welfare as adults. The current law which the charedim are trying to overturn requires that a private school teach basic maths and science and history before it is eligible for funding. Every government has the absolute right to enforce a minimum level of education in these areas, and that these schools are allowed to avoid teaching these subjects at all is outrageous. To expect the government to fund it is an obscene level of chutzpah. Add the that the fund that the numbers of kids in these “schools” is growing rapidly and this bill is a recipe of an Israeli economic meltdown.
The bottom line is that there is no inequality. All the charedi schools need to do is add some maths and science to their timetable like every other school in Israel, and they will be funded like every other school in Israel. Until then, there is nothing unfair about the government refusing to pay for a school system which if left unchecked will ultimately lead to an economic catastrophe.