MK Moshe Kinley Tur-Paz (Yesh Atid) does not deny the report that the Bennett-Lapid government offered one billion shekel to the haredi MKs in exchange for their vote in support of the State budget.
After he spoke at the Knesset plenum, Tur-Paz was asked by Deputy Knesset Speaker Uriel Busso (Shas), “In one word, yes or no: Do you deny the report by [journalist] Michael Shemesh regarding the agreements made prior to the vote on the State budget?”
In response, Tur-Paz said, “No.”
Busso continued, “You do not deny: Here, at least we have received an agreement regarding the matter of the agreements prior to the vote on the [State] budget in the Bennett-Lapid government a billion shekel to the haredim, for all the yellers.”
The document, published Monday on Kan 11 News, reveals that former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, former Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu), and former Prime Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) offered over one billion shekel to the haredi parties.
The offer included the promise of hundreds of million shekels to haredi educational institutions, for Torah classes, and for other matters of Judaism. This money would have been transferred, had MKs Meir Porush and Yisrael Eichler, both of United Torah Judaism, been willing to vote in favor of the budget.

The document that was revealed Monday evening by the journalist Michael Shemesh is an official document prepared by the Budget Division of the Finance Ministry and was nearly sent to MKs as a memorandum. An announcement would have been made shortly before the vote on the budget which would have said: “Prior to the approval of the said budget laws for their second and third reading, I would like to update that a few hours ago an oral agreement was reached with members of the Knesset on the manner of voting on the budget.”
MKs Porush and Eichler negotiated with coalition officials at that time on the issue. The move was intended to “poke a finger in Netanyahu’s eye” and show him that members of his bloc were ready to support the Bennett-Lapid government.
The office of opposition leader Yair Lapid responded: “We are not aware of any such document, and as far as we know, there was no agreement with the haredi parties on budget support in exchange for budgets.”