The High Court of Justice on Thursday issued an injunction against the transfer of NIS 400 million ($104 million) for food stamps to ensure nutritional security, which was promoted by Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri.
The justices insisted that the temporary injunction, in response to left-wing petitions, does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the court nor its ruling in the future.
They’re so cute when they act like they think we believe we live in a democracy.
The budget transfer was approved earlier this week by the Knesset Finance Committee. The right to receive food stamps was awarded to recipients of a 70% discount on property tax, income guarantee recipients, and individuals whose income is determined to be too low to sustain the number of people in their household.
As of 2021, the average salary of a Supreme Court Justice is $277,872. Supreme Court President Esther Hayut earns $337,200. When she retires in October, Hayut will receive a pension of about $250,000. As I said, these figures are for 2021, justices’ salaries have been raised since.
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel which was behind one of the petitions, suggested that food stamps to the poor (code for Sephardim) were being issued at the expense of elderly Holocaust survivors (code for Ashkenazim). They declared bravely: “We will be on guard to make sure that eligibility for food stamps is not determined by Aryeh Deri’s moral values.”
Finally: The chairman of the Knesset Committee on the Treatment of Holocaust Survivors, MK Merav Cohen (Yesh Atid), stated on Thursday: “Today we held another discussion in the finance committee on the budgetary transfer to the food stamp project initiated by the Shas party, following several discussions we held on the subject in my committee for Holocaust survivors. In today’s discussion, we were able to amend the original proposed model a little more, and approximately 41,000 poor Holocaust survivors will also receive food stamps.”
So, the dispute is all settled, but not as long as there’s a court injunction against the program.
