Knesset legal adviser Sagit Afik lambasted Knesset Finance Committee Chair Hanoch Milwidsky for his conduct during a meeting on Sunday, in which he insulted and interrupted the committee’s legal adviser, Shlomit Erlich, prevented her from speaking, and then held votes on several budget transfers without a discussion in the absence of opposition figures.

In a strongly worded letter addressed to Milwidsky that evening, Afik accused the committee chair of preventing Erlich from speaking and insulting her, referring to her as “shameful,” mocking her so-called legal advice, and accusing her of “disrupting and delaying” him for hours.

Erlich, a legal adviser at the Knesset for 18 years and legal adviser to the Finance Committee for five years, has participated in “all committee discussions for long hours into the night while providing objective, pertinent, and professional legal advice, which, it would appear, you no longer find necessary,” Afik wrote.

During Monday’s meeting, as Erlich attempted to explain to committee members that they could not vote on a procedure without first holding a discussion and providing the legally required explanation for budget transfers, Milwidsky repeatedly interrupted her, yelled with visible anger, slammed his hands on the desk, and aggressively threw his arms in the air. His repeated outbursts ultimately prompted Erlich to jump out of her chair and leave the room.

Despite her absence and the absence of opposition members, who had left in protest earlier in the session, the remaining committee members — all coalition lawmakers — voted to make several budget transfers, including the controversial diversion of over NIS 220 million ($68.5 million) from a program meant to boost Arab economic development to the police to combat “severe nationalistic crime” in the Arab community.

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The transfer is especially contentious because it is being pushed by Social Equality Minister May Golan, who is being investigated by police for fraud and misusing public funds, leading opposition MKs to argue that the move constitutes a kickback to police.


Knesset Finance Committee Legal Advisor Shlomit Erlich (left) and committee chair Hanoch Milwidsky (center) at a finance committee meeting, July 29, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/FLASH90)

Afik wrote that the vote to transfer the funds held during the meeting was invalid, “not because opposition members were not in the room, but because no discussion or even a minimal explanation took place regarding these requests.”

Earlier in the session, opposition lawmakers MKs Naor Shiri and Vladimir Beliak of Yesh Atid, and Labor’s Naama Lazimi and Gilad Kariv, left in protest after the chairman removed Yesh Atid MK Orit Farkash-Hacohen and barred her from returning to the chamber except to vote.

In response, Milwidsky wrote Monday that Afik’s letter “inaccurately described the chain of events” and was a “gift for provocateurs who disrespect the Knesset’s regulations.”

Hostility to scrutiny

Milwidsky’s attacks on the legal advisor and committee members stemmed from their scrutiny of a series of last-minute budget transfers that the committee aimed to advance before the year’s end, as the coalition rushed to pass its 2026 budget.

Echoing his later conduct toward Erlich, Milwidsky repeatedly silenced and spoke over Farkash-Cohen when she attempted to ask questions about the legislation, including questions directed to the Israel Police representative and Erlich, and ultimately had her ejected from the room.

Following the exodus of opposition lawmakers, Milwidsky briefly adjourned the meeting before continuing the discussion despite Erlich’s protests.


MK Orit Farkash-Hacohen speaks during a Constitution, Law and Justice Committee meeting at the Knesset, December 3, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

“MK Farkash-Hacohen said things that cannot be said,” says Milwidsky in a statement, reiterating that she will only be allowed to return to vote. “As for other members of the opposition, I don’t know why [they left]… perhaps to prevent the discussion from actually taking place.”

In a post on X on Monday, Farkash-Hacohen said that her only “crime” was that she “dared to ask questions.”

“This harassment of members of the Finance Committee will not pass in silence,” said Lazimi on Monday, calling the planned diversion of funds “entirely a scheme by a corrupt minister and a criminal minister,” referring to Golan and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

Opposition lawmakers argue that many recent transfers approved by the committee have been made with little to no discussion or explanation, including NIS 2.6 billion ($817 million) to the Education Ministry out of the remaining 2025 state budget on Thursday.

Most of the transfers are part of funds agreed to as part of coalition deals between the ruling Likud party and its partners, including the highly controversial transfer of NIS 1 billion ($312 million) to ultra-Orthodox schools, even though the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party exited the coalition in July in protest of the government’s failure to pass a draft exemption law for yeshiva students.

The government is desperately trying to pass its 2026 budget or face potential collapse. The ultra-Orthodox parties are currently boycotting coalition legislation and have vowed to oppose the budget so long as a military draft exemption law is not passed.

According to Yesh Atid MK and Finance Committee member Beliak, Thursday’s transfers include NIS 786 million ($245 million) to school networks affiliated with the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties.


UTJ MKs Yitzhak Goldknopf and Moshe Gafni at the Knesset plenum, Jerusalem, September 29, 2025. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)

NIS 287 million ($47.3 million) will go either to private schools that are exempt from teaching the core curriculum and subject to little oversight or sanctions from the Education Ministry, or “recognized but unofficial” schools, which commit to teaching 75 percent of the core curriculum but in practice often do not.

Additional funding will go to national religious schools.

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid announced Monday that his Yesh Atid party will petition the High Court of Justice against what he described as the “theft of more than a billion shekels of the money of Israeli citizens.”

Milwidsky’s conduct toward Erlich, the committee legal adviser, who is not a political figure but a civil servant, was linked to his urgency to push through votes on budget transfers free of obstruction or scrutiny.

His conduct was met with unanimous condemnation from opposition lawmakers, many of whom posted widely shared video clips from the fraught meeting in which a visibly hostile Milwidsky can be seen berating and yelling at the legal advisor.

“I have worked with Shlomit over the past five years. She is an upright, fair, and highly professional public servant,” wrote Beliak in a post on X Monday. “She does not deserve to go through what she went through, and as a member of Knesset, I only want to apologize and ask for forgiveness.”

Milwidsky was appointed to lead the powerful committee in July despite an ongoing police investigation against him on suspicion of rape and witness tampering.

Blue and White leader Benny Gantz wrote in a post on X Monday that “No person should behave this way, and certainly not a member of Knesset, and I expect MK Milwidsky to apologize to Shlomit Erlich, who is first and foremost a public servant, who has dedicated many years to the citizens of Israel. We deserve members of Knesset who are, first and foremost, human beings.”