A top ultra-Orthodox lawmaker is threatening to topple the coalition if his party’s bill to grant military exemptions to ultra-Orthodox students doesn’t go ahead.
“This is a total crisis, not a mini-crisis,” MK Moshe Gafni, who chairs the powerful Knesset Finance Committee, tells Israel Radio. “I will topple the coalition over this law.”
The Yisrael Beytenu party has vowed to oppose the draft bill, saying it will only support a version being formulated by the Defense Ministry.
The ultra-Orthodox parties were seeking to condition their support for the 2019 state budget on the advancement of their law. Gafni, as the head of the Knesset Finance Committee, is overseeing the final tweaks to the state budget.
The ultra-Orthodox proposal, a quasi-constitutional Basic Law, would enshrine long-term Torah study as equivalent to military service to the state.
United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni with Interior Minister Aryeh Deri at a Finance committee meeting in the Israeli parliament on February 27, 2018.(Flash90)
Help us report truthfully on social media
As a multimedia journalist, my job is to take the quality, fact-based journalism produced by The Times of Israel newsroom and make it accessible across every platform — from Instagram posts to podcasts to short-form videos.
This is how many, especially young people, consume news these days. But misinformation is rampant on social media. Our team at ToI produces accurate, responsible short-form reporting on Israel and the Jewish world.
If you believe in the importance of factual social media journalism, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to sustain responsible multimedia reporting.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
