Ultra-Orthodox politicians threaten to pull out of coalition
Following a High Court ruling officially allowing the Conservative and Reform movements a space to pray at the Western Wall, the ultra-Orthodox are threatening to leave the coalition.
Shas Members of Knesset cannot accept Israel's official recognition of the Reform and Conservative Jewish movements Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri said Monday night.
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There were rumors Monday night regarding the start of negotiations between the Likud and the Zionist Union parties in case the Haredis do in fact leave the coalition, or in order to expand the government.
Deri even tweeted, "I hope that these rumors regarding the expansion of the coalition are true, and I hope that when we wake up in the morning that a unity government will be created." However, the Zionist Union denied the reports.
Fury has risen within the ultra-Orthodox parties against the government, and in a vote of no confidence in the Knesset plenum Monday night, MK Israel Eichler (United Torah Judaism) clearly stated his opinion on the collapse of the government.
"It's true that the nation of Israel loses when the government surrenders to reforms of the Supreme Court which hurts the sanctity of Israel. Yet, as much as the ultra-Orthodox lose out if the government goes into crisis, the government ministers and the Prime Minister lose out even more. If the government doesn't approve the mikve law (which would put the supervision of Jewish ritual baths under the control of ultra-Orthodox parties), the Council of Torah Sages will convene and discuss and decide on the future of the government and what we will do," he said.
Eichler alluded to the convention of the Council of Torah Sages of the Agudat Yisrael political party, which is supposed to convene on Tuesday.
The Knesset Members of the party are worried about ambiguous things that the rabbis might do in order to maneuver around them and force them to destroy the coalition. In the most extreme case, the rabbis may force the MKs to leave the government if the government decides not to cancel the decision to designate a section of the Western Wall for the Reform movement.
Even Minister of Health Yaakov Litzman commented on the crisis in a radio interview, saying "We have a coalition agreement with Prime Minister Netanyahu, and the main article of the agreement is to maintain the status quo. I request this, nothing more, and I am certainly ready to end the coalition for it."
Due to the political crisis, the mikve law was passed on Sunday by the Ministerial Committee on Legislation.
The law, which is headed by MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) goes around the High Court decision which determined that the mikves would be administered by the Reform and Conservative movements alongside the Orthodox.
Politicians clarified that the ultra-Orthodox sector can live with the solutions regarding the various Jewish movements, as long as they don’t receive official validation from the government.
"If they let them (the Reform and Conservative movements – ed) pray at the southern area of the Western Wall, but they don't 'officially' let them do it, with development budgets and with legal definition, then the ultra-Orthodox public can accept it."
