This week we will present once again the rising tensions between religious and secular factions in Israeli society and politics.

But this time the tension seems to be escalating: in the coming days the Knesset will vote on a two year budget for Israel. Without the support of the religious parties in his coalition, PM Netanyahu could not gain a majority and win the vote. In Israel when the budget is not approved by Knesset, it means that the government falls (usually within three months).

The religious parties decided to request a bill worth 120 million NIS (£22 million) for grants for yeshiva (Jewish seminary) students with three kids or more, in exchange for supporting the budget.

Most haredi (ultra-orthodox) yeshiva students do not serve in the army as part of a very old agreement between former Israeli prime minister David Ben Gurion and the religious parties. As a result, the issue of state grants for the ultra-orthodox community in Israel has been highly debated over the years.

This bill is bypassing a ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court which stated that it is discriminatory to issue specific bills for the beefit of yeshiva students, as non religious students would not be able to benefit from it.

The articles which follow (taken from the news source YNET) tell this story. The first outlines the issues at hand but more interestingly perhaps, the second article details the protests by some Israeli students who are planning a series of demonstrations around Israel which could lead easily to violent riots. Israeli students are mostly indifferent to student issues, and whether this time they are going to erupt will be determined in the next few days.