Jewish Home said to seek religion and state veto
National-religious party fears ultra-Orthodox coalition partners may reverse reforms from last Knesset, report says
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The Jewish Home party is demanding a veto on religion and state issues in the next governing coalition, the Haaretz daily reported on Monday.
The national-religious party had such a veto in the coalition agreement of the last government, and used it occasionally to try to head off some of the liberalizing reforms championed by the centrist, secularist Yesh Atid party, such as the introduction of civil marriage.
As for the next coalition, according to the report, Jewish Home’s demand is rooted in the opposite fear: that the ultra-Orthodox parties Shas and United Torah Judaism will try to reverse some of the reforms Jewish Home supported in recent years.
In particular, Jewish Home’s leader, Naftali Bennett, seeks to preserve the conversion reform – the so-called “Tzohar Law” – passed in the last government, which allows municipal rabbis to establish conversion courts outside the purview of the Chief Rabbinate’s conversion system.
The measure did not pass as a law in the Knesset, but as a government directive, and so can be overturned by a simple cabinet vote in the new government, something Shas and UTJ, which have vehemently opposed the initiative from the start, are hoping to do.
The remaining secularist party in the expected coalition, Yisrael Beytenu, may also attempt to advance liberalizing legislation with the help of opposition parties, including further easing of conversion regulations and the institution of civil marriage, something Jewish Home wants to be able to limit.
According to Haaretz, one senior Likud source said last December, as the 33rd Government was collapsing, that the veto on religion and state was a key factor in the government’s collapse, preventing straightforward votes on bills that some coalition partners saw as key interests of their constituents.
Coalition agreements have the legal force of a contract, and are enforceable in court.
By law, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has until May 6 to conclude his coalition talks for the establishment of a new coalition.
The Times of Israel Community.