MK (Yahadut HaTorah) R’ Moshe Gafne, who chairs the Knesset Finance Committee, rejected a treasury request for NIS millions to refurbish courtrooms during a committee session on Monday.

Gafne questioned why the treasury is only seeking funding for courts, and not batei din, which he explained are generally in greater need of refurbishing then the civil courts. He said if the treasury wishes to refurbish courts, then it must also find funds to simultaneously address the alarming and dilapidated state of many religious courts. He added that Justice Minister Prof Yaakov Neeman has addressed the need to improve the batei din, and a plan does exist, but they lack the funding from the treasury to actualize the plan.

After receiving a commitment from treasury officials that a similar request will be made of the committee within a month, to address the religious courts, he approved the funding for refurbishing civil courthouses.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)