High Court to Review Coalition Funds Freeze Amid Warnings of Periphery Crisis
The High Court of Justice will review a petition to freeze coalition funds, as officials warn of impending community collapses and the suspension of 4,000 national civic service volunteers.
The High Court of Justice is set to convene on Thursday to hear a petition regarding the freezing of coalition funds, a move that officials warn could severely impact peripheral communities and national civic service programs.
Warning of Collapse in the Periphery
In a letter sent to the government, Hoshaya Harari, CEO of the Settlement Division, warned that freezing the vital funds would cause communities in the periphery to collapse. "Stopping the funds following the High Court's decision is a direct and severe blow to the most complex and fragile communities in the periphery and national priority areas," Harari stated.
According to the letter, the budgets for 2025 are coming to an end, and without immediate renewal, the immediate consequence will be mass layoffs of field professionals, a halt to absorption processes, and critical damage to physical and community infrastructure. Harari cited several communities at risk of collapse, including Neve Eitan in the Beit She'an Valley, Ramat Trump, Samar kibbutz in the Arava, and Yir Obuot, as well as Hiran, Tze'elim, and Peduim.
Impact on National Civic Service Volunteers
Simultaneously, CEOs of organizations operating the national-civic service system warned in a letter to the head of the National-Civic Service Authority, Adi Wells, that canceling the fund transfer will halt the service of 4,000 volunteers immediately after the Sukkot holiday. The government had previously allocated a dedicated budget of 74 million shekels for these positions, which was approved by the government and the Finance Committee.
"Following the stoppage of the budget, we must warn that 4,000 national service volunteers who began their year of volunteering on September 1, 2026, in educational positions... will not be able to return to their service, and we will not be able to transfer their 'pocket money' for September 2026," the executives wrote.
High Court Proceedings
According to data from the Ministry of Settlement and National Missions, more than 100 million shekels approved for the routine activities of the Settlement Division in the Galilee, Golan, Negev, and Judea and Samaria are currently frozen by the High Court. On August 24, the High Court issued an order nisi in a petition against the Finance Committee's recess meeting, demanding that the Knesset Speaker, Finance Committee Chairman, and Ministry of Finance explain why the transfer of 409 million shekels approved on August 4 should not be canceled.
