Ultra-Orthodox parties UTJ and Shas feud over Rabbis Law as it goes up for vote

United Torah Judaism slams the coalition’s decision to bring the so-called Rabbis Law II, backed by fellow ultra-Orthodox party Shas, to the plenum for a vote today.

“The coalition must coordinate with us regarding the city rabbis law and the timing of when it is brought up,” UTJ Knesset member Gafni tells the party-aligned Yated Ne’eman newspaper. “There is no such thing as the finance minister and the religious services minister bringing up something like this without coordinating with us as if we did not exist.”

The Shas-backed Rabbis Law is set to go to the Knesset plenum for its first reading on Monday, after being repeatedly blocked by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party.

It aims to amend the Religious Services Law, which regulates how much the government and municipalities contribute respectively to the budgets of the bodies providing communal religious services at the city and regional council levels.

Gafni’s statement comes as his party attempts to advance its own legislation to circumvent a High Court ruling preventing state-funded daycare subsidies from going to the children of ultra-Orthodox men who do not serve in the military. That bill has been held up due to opposition within the coalition that left it without sufficient support to pass an initial vote in the Knesset.

In response, Religious Services Minister Michael Malkieli of Shas accuses Gafni of joining the “chorus of haters of religion who fight against everything related to Judaism,” adding that his objections were “puzzling” given that their two parties had coordinated their positions on the law prior to Ben Gvir’s efforts to torpedo it in recent months.