Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Habayit Hayehudi) is requesting the Knesset Finance Committee to confirm the transfer of about $7.5 million from the Courts upkeep budget to 22 settlements in Judea and Samaria that are facing severe deficits and thus have been unable to meet their security challenges, Channel 2 News reported Wednesday.
Shaked’s office denied it had any part in the decision, suggesting the Justice Ministry does not get involved in what is a Finance Ministry decision. But it is hard to imagine that the subtracting of such a large sum from the Justice Ministry’s budget could be done without Shaked’s approval, if not urging.
Sources at the Finance Ministry told Channel 2 they were unhappy with the decision, and that it is based on a vote taken by the Netanyahu cabinet on the last day of 2016.
The Finance Ministry prefers to define the recipients as “local councils,” and avoid identifying them as “settlements,” which has angered at least one opposition MK: Stav Shafir (Zionist Camp), chair of the Knesset Transparency Committee, has threatened to expose the precise beneficiaries of the budgetary shift. She also insists that some of the money go to periphery communities.