The Knesset Finance Committee has approved criteria for budgeting the religious councils in 2017, following postponements and the Ministry of Finance's agreement to indemnify local authorities.
At the same time, committee chairman Moshe Gafni announced that the ritual of budgeting religious services would not be repeated next year, saying, "Religious services are underutilized and discriminated against in relation to other services to the citizen by their budgeting method."