Finance Committee chairman MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) harshly criticized a statement by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionism) regarding coalition funds, made during a Religious Zionism party meeting.
The funds, which are discretionary funds for use by the coalition, are slated to help offset yeshiva budgets' funding, and to support communities in Judea and Samaria.
Smotrich claimed that he offered Gafni to insert the haredi parties' coalition funds into the base of the budget, but Gafni refused.
"You don't need to be in the Knesset for many years to know where the solution to coalition funds lies, and Smotrich knows very well that the proper way to put something into the basic budget is through the government and not through reservations in a committee," Gafni said.
Criticizing Smotrich, he added: "We expect him, in his position as Finance Minister, to make efforts to eliminate this impurity called 'coalition funds,' as he himself promised to do. It's in his hands."