Bennett vows to reverse new law expanding authority of rabbinic and sharia courts

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett promises to roll back — should he be elected — a controversial law passed last night significantly expanding the authority of the state’s rabbinic and sharia court systems, declaring that “there will be no state within a state here.”

The bill, sponsored by Degel Hatorah — half of the United Torah Judaism party — and Shas, gives the religious tribunals the power to arbitrate civil disputes, which are currently under the purview of the secular court system. Rabbinical courts were allowed to act as arbitrators in financial disputes until 2006, when a court decision determined that they had no standing to do so.

The legislation stipulates that religious courts would only be allowed to rule on such issues with the consent of both parties, but Bennett expresses skepticism that it can be applied fairly, as many may not be able to resist pressure to engage in rabbinic arbitration.

“While you were in the shelters, the government last night passed a law that both tears the nation apart in wartime and seriously harms individual rights,” Bennett states, arguing that the law means that the ultra-Orthodox “will de facto be able to control the lives of more and more citizens.”

“We will soon abolish all these extreme laws and strengthen Israel as a Jewish, democratic, liberal and united state,” he says.

The law is also condemned by the Israeli Reform Movement, whose CEO, Anna Kislensky, accuses the government of having “paid a political bribe to the Haredi and religious parties” by creating a “parallel judicial system that will rule according to Torah law and will harm all of our rights.”

“We should recall that decisions in the rabbinical courts are made in a room full of men — Orthodox only — according to halachic law, in which the law for a woman is different from that for a man,” Kislensky says, declaring that the new law is neither democratic nor Jewish.

Meanwhile, Shas welcomes the passage, calling it a “historic move” that “brings back to the [rabbinic] courts authority that was previously taken from them by the High Court of Justice, and gives citizens the option of choosing to resolve disputes according to Torah law, in a professional, efficient and transparent process.”

“This is a significant step toward strengthening the status of the rabbinical courts and Judaism in the State of Israel,” the party says.