Liberman: Conversion bill, shelved Western Wall plan amount to ‘religious coercion’

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman says shelving the Western Wall pluralistic pavilion and attempts to cement the ultra-Orthodox monopoly on conversions are “religious coercion.”

At the start of the weekly Yisrael Beytenu faction meeting, Liberman notes that then-cabinet secretary Avichai Mandelblit, who is Orthodox, formulated the original Western Wall compromise and he’s “certainly not against religion,” and Jewish Home ministers in January 2016 supported it.

This is “not a religious matter, but the opposite. It’s religious coercion,” he says.

Liberman describes the parallel efforts, at the prodding of the ultra-Orthodox parties, as an attempt “to transform Israel from a Zionist state to a halachic [Jewish legal] state.”

“I am against religious coercion,” he adds. “I am against a halachic state.”

He urges the Jewish Home party to back him in opposing the bill that would end recognition of private conversions, saying the move “first of all hurts Tzohar rabbis,” in reference to the religious Zionist organization.

And he says he was “surprised” by the decision to roll back the Western Wall deal, as it wasn’t on the cabinet meeting agenda.

Liberman also suggests he won’t derail the coalition over the disagreements, saying he hopes that he can cut a compromise in the coming week.

— Marissa Newman