All 15 members of the Chief Rabbinate's Shemitta Committee have been fired, according to Ynet. Rabbis Ze'ev Veitman and Avraham Yosef and 13 additional supervisors, who were employed by a manpower firm, were notified of their termination and asked to give back the vehicles and cell phones they had been issued. The manpower company said its contract with the government had run out and was not renewed.
The practical meaning of this is that barely six weeks into the shemitta year, there is no government-certified rabbinical body which can deal with the matters of kashrut (Jewish dietary laws) that pertain to it.
A source who is involved in the efforts to renew the committee's work told Ynet that the necessary funds are available but the Prime Minister's Office is dragging its feet on the matter. He said it was possible that unspecified "hareidi forces" were behind the delay, because they were unhappy with the decision to accept "heter mechira" products as kosher.