Heads of Religious-Zionist educational organizations wrote to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Wednesday and asked him to issue clear instructions to the Finance Ministry and other relevant ministries, to cancel cuts in the tens of millions of shekels to their budgets. They added that the state of the budget of Religious-Zionist educational institutions was worse at present than it had been under the previous government, led by Ehud Olmert and Kadima.
The educators reminded Netanyahu of a document signed by Likud Knesset members before the elections, led by Netanyahu, in which they pledged to support the Religious-Zionist educational endeavor.
The document stated that a government under Netanyahu would “embrace and develop the magnificent educational edifice of Religious-Zionism and all of its offshoots, and will make sure that support for it is included in the basis of the state budget without reducing its size, as its importance demands.”
The educational officials threatened that all Religious-Zionist educational institutions would go on strike if the problem was not rectified. The institutions hit by the cuts include high school yeshivas, hesder yeshivas, ulpanot, midrashot and Torah seed groups.