The Knesset's leading opposition party, Kadima, was embarrassed Wednesday when it was revealed that party leaders had supported stipends for kollel students. Kadima MKs have vociferously opposed the stipends in recent debates.
MK Yohanan Plesner attacked the Likud in a speech Wednesday, criticizing the party for giving in to hareidi-religious demands.
His accusations angered Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Leitzman of the hareidi-religious United Torah Judaism party. “Are you in Kadima not ashamed of yourselves?” he asked. “You're attacking the Likud... ? I want to read to you from a document recording the coalition negotiations between United Torah Judaism and Kadima, headed by Livni.”
Leitzman proceeded to read a passage in which Kadima promised to continue paying stipends to eligible kollel students. “Just as the government is doing now,” he concluded. “What hypocrisy, what an embarrassment.”
Kadima attempted to form a coalition after the last national elections, but was eventually forced into the opposition as Likud head Binyamin Netanyahu managed to bring nationalist and religious parties to his side, leaving Kadima with too few seats for a government despite its status as the largest Knesset faction.
Prime Minister Netanyahu recently added more than 110 million shekels to the state budget for stipends for married fathers learning Torah full-time in yeshivas (kollels). The change followed a High Court decision that found the stipends to be discriminatory, as they are paid only to kollel students and not to those learning in other institutes of higher learning.
Hareidi Parties Receive Islamic Movement Support
The kollel stipends debate made for strange bedfellows as the stipends were slammed by MK Aryeh Eldad of the largely religious National Union party, while receiving support from MK Ibrahim Sarsur of the virulently anti-Zionist Ra'am Ta'al.
Eldad accused hareidi leaders of encouraging hate between various sectors of society. By insisting on special treatment, including exclusion from military service and extra funding, hareidi society gives those who detest religious Jewish life justification for their hate, he said.
Sarsur, on the other hand, said he is in favor of the stipend. “I think the hareidi students should get this stipend, it' a small amount and doesn't meet their needs or those of their children,” he said. “There's no excuse to punish their innocent children.”
“My research shows that we have 3,000 Muslim religious scholars,” said Sarsur, whose party is affiliated with the Islamic Movement. “With the help of our hareidi Jewish brothers, we will find a way to work together” and get funding for all, he concluded.