Likud minister says agreement reached with Haredi parties and URWP to maintain religious status quo

Likud minister Yariv Levin updates his ministerial counterparts that an agreement has been reached between Likud, the national religious Union of Right-Wing Parties, and the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties to maintain the status quo on issues of religion and state in the next government, if it is indeed formed by Wednesday night at midnight.

However, on the issue of settlements, Likud has rejected URWP demands, including legislation to cancel the 2005 Disengagement Law that has barred Israelis from returning to four demolished northern West Bank communities, the abolition of the Civil Administration — the Defense Ministry body that authorizes settlement construction — and a pledge not to evacuate any settlements. The government may go on to support such moves but Netanyahu is not interested in turning them into principles of the new government.