Israel’s Supreme Court overturned a decision on Tuesday of the Knesset’s Finance Committee to deny tax-exempt status to Christian-missionary non-profit organizations. The court ruled that the committee had overstepped its legal jurisdiction reports Haaretz.

The decision refers to a petition submitted by the Yachad Ramat Hasharon non-profit organization, a Messianic congregation, against a previous decision by the finance committee. All 15 committee members, including seven who were then in the opposition bloc, backed the motion to deny the tax benefits.

“The High Court justices, in a last-minute effort to interfere with my position as Finance Committee chairman, revoked the Knesset’s authority to host discussions on matters within the Knesset’s authority,” said former Finance Committee chairman Moshe Gafni (UTJ).

“All of the members of the committee, the coalition, as well as opposition, backed the decision not to allow tax-exempt status to missionary groups on account of their illegal activities but the Supreme Court has deemed it appropriate to invalidate that authority.”

“I recommend that the High Court justices refrain from complaining when a conflict is waged against their judicial overreach on the heels of their overt meddling in the role of the legislature.”

This decision comes nearly a year following a landmark ruling, whereby Israeli regulatory authorities announced that they were pulling the plug on an evangelical Christian television channel after failing to disclose that its true agenda was missionizing Jews when applying for their license.

The group’s Hebrew language channel Shelanu TV  started broadcasting on Israel’s Hot cable network towards the end of April after receiving a license from the Council for Cable and Satellite Broadcasting.