Lapid slams bill expanding power of rabbinical courts: Israel’s religious status quo ‘dead, buried’

Condemning the coalition’s wartime efforts to pass a a bill expanding the power of the rabbinical courts, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid declares that the state’s longstanding religious status quo is “dead, buried, eliminated [and] canceled.”

This legislation creates a “halachic state,” or a country governed by Jewish religious law, Lapid tells reporters ahead of his Yesh Atid party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset.

He further slams the coalition for pushing for additional funding for ultra-Orthodox school networks that fail to teach the full core curriculum, arguing that the Haredi parties’ legislative efforts have sent the rest of Israel the message that they “are our cash cow, and we will take advantage of every opportunity to extort and take advantage of you.”

“Remember this day when the next government comes, when we pass legislation stating there will be no more money for any education system that does not teach a full core curriculum… including civics and democratic studies,” he says.

Lapid says that if elected, the opposition will pass bills cutting off draft evaders from all government assistance; allowing mayors to “fire city rabbis, or to hire Reform and Conservative rabbis”; instituting civil marriage and establishing “public transportation on Shabbat in secular majority localities.”

They will also “establish a system that grants Kosher certification without going through the Rabbinate,” Lapid declares. “Remember this day, and do not come crying to us about the status quo, because you killed it.”

Pushing back against opposition criticism, coalition whip Ofir Katz (Likud) says that the opposition must not have noticed the Knesset advancing bills to benefit reservists, evacuees and business owners impacted by the war this week. “We are continuing to act for the Israeli public.”