Shas spiritual figure vows party will not push bills that ‘harm’ secular Israelis

A senior member of the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party’s spiritual governing body said Monday that he had instructed party leader Aryeh Deri to refrain from filing bills that would harm the secular population in Israel.

Rabbi David Yosef, a member of the party’s Council of Torah Sages and a son of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the late spiritual leader of Shas, said he wanted to “calm secular people down.”

“We have no intention of making laws that will stoke hatred and divide. We want to unite. We want to bring people together. We’re not looking to divide,” Yosef said in a video shared by Channel 12 on Monday.

“We’ve instructed Deri and our MKs not to file bills that would limit the secular public. We’re not looking to bring people closer to God through threats and laws,” the state-paid rabbi said.

“That is not our way. We won’t choose the path of coercion,” Yosef went on, pointing to the approach of “love and friendship, and bringing people together” he said was espoused by his late father.

“We won’t do the same as the previous government,” he said, in reference to the outgoing coalition, made up mostly of secularist parties, most notably Yisrael Beytenu. The party’s leader, Avigdor Liberman, has feuded for years with the ultra-Orthodox parties over funding for Haredi Torah institutions and government support through taxpayer funds, the absence of core curriculum subjects like math and English being taught at ultra-Orthodox schools, exemptions to mandatory military service for seminary students, and religious influence in Israeli civic life.

חבר מועצת חכמי התורה של ש״ס הרב דוד יוסף: הנחינו את דרעי ואת חברי הכנסת שלנו לא להגיש חוקים שיגבילו את הציבור החילוני pic.twitter.com/FAD4Lnog1Y

— יאיר שרקי (@yaircherki) December 26, 2022

Liberman angered ultra-Orthodox communities this summer when, as finance minister, he moved to slash budgets for subsidized supervised daycare for the ultra-Orthodox children up to the age of three.

Such issues rallied ultra-Orthodox voters in the latest national election on November 1 and delivered 11 seats for Shas and seven for the United Torah Judaism party. Both will be part of Benjamin Netanyahu’s incoming coalition made up of religious and far-right parties Religious Zionism, Otzma Yehudit and Noam, in addition to his own right-wing Likud party.

UTJ MK Moshe Gafni vowed last week that his party will work to undo everything that Liberman enacted while in office.

Outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid has also long campaigned for wider integration of ultra-Orthodox communities into the workforce through reduced state subsidies and has been a proponent of introducing core curriculum studies into ultra-Orthodox schools and ending blanket exemptions to mandatory military service for seminary students.

Ultra-Orthodox parties have not forgotten how, when Lapid served as finance minister between 2013 and 2014 in a government led by incoming prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that did not include Shas or United Torah Judaism, the Knesset passed legislation during that time mandating criminal penalties for ultra-Orthodox students who shirk military conscription. Portions of the law were rolled back in 2015 following the ultra-Orthodox parties’ return to government.

In recent years, the ultra-Orthodox parties have felt targeted by a number of bills or changes that they say affect their communities’ daily lives, like the tax on sugary drinks, which went into effect this January, a tax on disposable tableware, and a directive that mobile phone companies must allow full number mobility on so-called kosher lines, a move many ultra-Orthodox rabbis have vehemently fought.

Many Haredim use kosher phones — devices stripped of social media, texting, and most other apps — on the advice of rabbis, and the phone numbers associated with such devices and lines are easily identifiable.

Israel’s ultra-Orthodox factions have also warred with secular parties and the public over commercial and cultural activity on Shabbat as well as any public transportation between sundown on Fridays to sundown on Saturday evenings.

In Israel, buses and trains do not generally run in Jewish-majority cities on Friday night and Saturday before sundown. The practice was born of an agreement reached between the ultra-Orthodox community and Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, before the formation of the state.

Secular Israelis have long chafed at their restricted mobility during the weekend. Ultra-Orthodox communities have also long protested infrastructure and maintenance work on roads and rail lines during Shabbat.

Major shifts

In a bleak address last week, Lapid said the next Netanyahu-led government was not committed to democracy or to the rule of law, and that it would devastate the Israeli education system, disproportionately fund the ultra-Orthodox community, tank the economy, politicize the army, cause an explosion in the West Bank, undermine Israel’s international standing, and damage ties with the US and the Diaspora.

Netanyahu and his 64-seat coalition in the 120-member Knesset have moved in recent weeks for major policy shifts on religion and state issues, the balance between the political and the judiciary, and minority rights.

According to the Likud-Shas interim coalition agreement, Deri will be the next interior minister and health minister. After roughly two years, Deri will replace Religious Zionism chairman Bezalel Smotrich as finance minister. The Shas chairman will also be named deputy prime minister.

Before he can return to the cabinet, however, the Knesset has to pass legislation allowing lawmakers handed jail sentences from becoming ministers. Deri was handed a suspended sentence after being convicted of tax offenses earlier this year — his second conviction — and the existing law does not differentiate between a suspended sentence and time served.

Shas and parties in Israel’s likely next government have pushed for passing contentious legislation off the bat that would allow the Knesset to override Supreme Court decisions, including in order to allow Deri to return to a government office.

In addition to the positions for Deri, Likud agreed to hand Shas control over the Religious Services and Welfare Ministries, and two members of the 11-MK party will also be named deputy ministers in the Education and Interior Ministries.

A hearing and confidence vote on the incoming government is slated for Thursday morning, though it can be delayed until the morning of January 2.

Netanyahu still has to overcome some key stumbling blocks before swearing in the government, including formalizing coalition agreements with almost all of his partners, dividing ministerial jobs among his Likud party members, and finalizing two key pieces of legislation demanded by coalition partners as preconditions.

The first of these bills — to enable appointing an independent minister within the Defense Ministry with wide-ranging authority over West Bank settlers and Palestinians, as well as clear a path for Deri to run the two ministries is expected to come for its final votes early Tuesday.

A second bill — to expand political authority over the police leadership and policy, as demanded by far-right incoming police minister Itamar Ben Gvir of Otzma Yehudit — was slated for final votes on Tuesday, after it cleared a committee where it was held up by opposition lawmakers and legal advisers who warned against rushing through the controversial moves. A bill must pass three readings in the Knesset to become law.

A Channel 13 report on Monday said Deri had been unaware of an agreement between the Likud and Otzma Yehudit to pass legislation that would remove the clause in Israel’s quasi-constitutional Basic Law: The Knesset stipulating that those inciting to racism are disqualified from running for parliament. That same clause was introduced by the Knesset in 1985 and successfully blocked the racist Kach party, led by extremist rabbi Meir Kahane of whom Ben Gvir is a disciple, from returning to parliament.

According to the report, the Shas party is opposed to such legislation as well as to a separate reported coalition agreement between the Religious Zionism and Likud parties that includes a clause stipulating that the incoming government will seek to amend discrimination laws to allow business owners to refuse to provide a service if it violates their religious beliefs.

The deal has yet to be officially signed and has caused an uproar in Israel’s business and high-tech industries.

On Sunday, Religious Zionism MK Orit Strock, who is set to become a cabinet minister in the incoming government, sparked an outcry by saying that doctors should be allowed to refuse to provide treatments that contravene their religious faith, as long as another doctor is willing to provide the same treatment.

Strock made the comments in the context of the reported agreement by members of the incoming coalition to enshrine that right in legislation.

Backing up Strock, fellow Religious Zionism MK Simcha Rothman asserted that if a hotel wanted to refuse service to gay people on religious grounds, it would be entitled to do so.

Carrie Keller-Lynn contributed to this report.