Petitioners urge High Court to unfreeze urgent funding for authorities in Israel's North, South

The petitioners behind the High Court's freeze on disputed government funding have now asked the court to release a series of urgent transfers for local authorities and communities in the North and South, while keeping coalition and sectoral funding blocked.

The request, filed by Hiddush and Democrats MK Naama Lazimi, marks the latest turn in a dispute over hundreds of millions of shekels approved by the Knesset Finance Committee during the election recess.

The Knesset pushed back on Monday, arguing that the petitioners' own willingness to distinguish between urgent and other funding undermines their original claim that the August 4 Finance Committee meeting at which the transfers were approved was unlawful. It again asked the court to dismiss the petition and lift the freeze altogether.

Funding of 78 million shekels remains blocked

For now, most of the disputed funding remains blocked.

Civil emergency expenditures were excluded when Justice Alex Stein first froze the transfers on August 5, and on Friday the High Court separately released the full NIS 78 million transfer for the Religious Services Ministry. The remaining Education Ministry and National Missions Ministry transfers remain frozen unless the court decides otherwise.

The petitioners are now asking to narrow that freeze further.