Yamina accuses Netanyahu of ‘contempt’ for religious-Zionist community
MKs Shaked and Smotrich denounce the decision to give the chairmanship of the committee for selecting rabbinical judges to the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party.
By JEREMY SHARONSenior Yamina MK Ayelet Shaked speaks at the 'Maariv' Conference.(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
A bitter war of words has broken out between the Yamina Party and the Likud over who is taking care of religious-Zionist interests, after MK Ayelet Shaked denounced the Likud for giving the chairmanship of the committee for selecting rabbinical judges to Shas.The 11-member selection committee is responsible for selecting rabbinical judges to the 12 regional rabbinical courts around the country and the Supreme Rabbinical Court in Jerusalem.For the last five years it was chaired by Likud minister Yuval Steinitz as a way to balance the influence of the ultra-Orthodox parties who have strong representation and influence on the selection committee.As part of Shas’ coalition agreement with Likud however it was agreed that the ultra-Orthodox party would take the chairmanship of the committee.Before the Yamina Party ruled out joining the coalition, senior religious-Zionist leader Rabbi Haim Druckman demanded from the Likud that the chairmanship of the committee remain with a Likud minister, but he was refused.Currently, however, there are no open chairs on the regional rabbinical courts or the Supreme Rabbinical Court, so it is unlikely that any appointments will be made in the near future.Speaking from the podium of the Knesset plenum on Monday, Shaked said that during the election campaign she had warned the religious-Zionist community that “Netanyahu will take what is important to us and sell it to the ultra-Orthodox,” and denounced the Likud for having given the committee to Shas.“Is this how you are taking care of the religious-Zionist community,” Shaked shouted at Likud minister Tzipi Hotovely, who is from the religious-Zionist sector, calling the decision “a disgrace.”Shaked claimed that when Bayit Yehudi was in the coalition, it had “fought to the last moment and was successful” to ensure that the committee chairmanship would not go to the ultra-Orthodox parties.“I very much hope that religious-Zionists next time will be wise and will see how Netanyahu has deceived them,” she said in a political pitch for the large numbers of voters from the religious-Zionist community who voted Likud in the last three elections.
Despite Shaked’s claims, when appointments were made to the regional rabbinical courts, and to the Supreme Rabbinical Court, the ultra-Orthodox parties vetoed religious-Zionist candidates they did not approve of.Critics of Bayit Yehudi under the leadership of Naftali Bennett and Shaked alleged at the time that they had capitulated to the ultra-Orthodox vetoes despite at some stages even having a majority of non-ultra-Orthodox members on the selection committee.Yamina MK Betzalel Smotrich also attacked the transfer of the committee to Shas from the Knesset podium in what appeared to be a coordinated political attack by the party MKs against Netanyahu and the Likud to highlight their alleged failure to look after religious-Zionist interests.“This decision expresses the disrespect and even contempt that the prime minister has for the religious-Zionist community and what it represents,” said Smotrich, and disparaged the new ministries created for religious-Zionist members of the Likud in the new government.“Netanyahu has contempt for us, he has contempt for our rabbis, and he has contempt for our values, for our well-being, for our rabbinical judges and for our representatives,” stormed Smotrich.Hotovely issued a sharp response to Shaked and Smotrich’s allegations, saying that under their leadership, Bayit Yehudi and Yamina had tried to be “an imitation Likud,” and that “all of a sudden you are protesting over sectoral issues.”Said Hotovely “You are the ones who deceived the religious-Zionist community, not the Likud. The public doesn’t buy your hypocrisy. The religious-Zionist community has faithful representatives in the Likud, and they gave us their trust time after time.”Shas MK Moshe Abutbul said that Shas had never harmed the religious-Zionist community and promised that the recent traditional division of rabbinical judge appointments of one third for Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox candidates, one third for Sephardi ultra-Orthodox candidates and one third for religious-Zionist candidates would be preserved, despite the interference of the ultra-Orthodox parties in the religious-Zionist candidates during the last government.On Tuesday, Rabbi Tzvi Ben-Yaakov was appointed as a temporary judge on the Supreme Rabbinical Court due to the long-term health problems of rabbinical judge Rabbi Maimon Nahari.
