Finance Committee Chairman Moshe Gafni (UTJ) on Monday introduced the 2023-24 budget to the Knesset plenum and devoted key parts of his speech to the rampant incitement against the Haredi public, following the criticism (often laced with equal portions of lies and poison) of yeshiva funding.
“Yair Lapid is standing and talking about the army, and everything related to the matter,” said Gafni. “And with all due respect, I did not see Yair Lapid the combatant, but instead it was Yair Lapid who sat in the editorial offices of the IDF newspaper Ba’Mahane, gossiping about officers and civilians…”
“My Haredi brother, more haredi than I am, fought in the 1982 Lebanon War,” Gafni continued. “He was in the battle on Sultan Yacoub, his life was in danger. We were sure, God forbid, that he was killed in that battle. He volunteered. A haredi, but if you would see him, you’d call after him, ‘Parasite, go to the army.’ And that’s what happened – we were in Tel Aviv and that’s what they called him.”
Gafni continued: “He returned from the battle on Sultan Yacoub, his friends were killed there. His children will receive half the salary and half the funding Yair Lapid will receive, the one who served in the Ba’Mahane newspaper. My brother will not receive this money for his children. He didn’t fight enough. Suddenly we have such a criterion.”
“I have a granddaughter,” Gafni said. “This granddaughter works. She got married and had a son. My great-grandson. First great-grandson. A young girl, she works in high-tech, earns well, and she contributes to the state’s economy, and she works in high-tech together with her Haredi friends who studied together at Rabbi Wolf’s seminary in Bani Barak, where she was a student.”
“And she learned all the skills and everything that goes along with this profession,” Gafni said. “Even though her school was underfunded. There are always excuses. You study all the core curriculum subjects there. She went to work in high-tech. But people sit here and say why she doesn’t deserve it. and why? Because it is not supervised – but it is supervised. Because she doesn’t study the core curriculum subjects – she does study them, and more than others, because she also studies Judaism.”
