Lapid at Yesh Atid protest
Lapid at Yesh Atid protestElad Guttman

Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid threatened on Saturday to file a petition with the High Court should Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu not appoint a health minister. 

MK Yaakov Litzman of United Torah Judaism has been promised the role of deputy health minister under a coalition agreement between his party and Likud. UTJ MKs refuse to serve in top ministerial posts because of ideological and religious reasons. 

In response, Lapid, who has been publicly condemning the Likud-UTJ deal for days, sent a letter to Netanyahu on Saturday night calling on him to name a health minister.

Nothing that the High Court has already ruled the UTJ practice as unacceptable, Lapid also chastised Netanyahu for allowing "a man who refuses to swear allegiance to the State of Israel" to be given control of such an important post. 

"It is not clear how the Israeli Prime Minister, the chairman of a Zionist party, accepts the status of a non-Zionist party playing a central role in the coalition he heads," Lapid charged. 

"The [UTJ] party knowingly requested the role of deputy minister and not minister, only to shirk the collective responsibility imposed on members of the government and to avoid swearing allegiance to the state of Israel and its law, a duty incumbent on every member of the executive branch."

"The truth must be told loudly, strongly, and clearly," Lapid continued. "The coalition deal you signed has given justification to an absurd situation."

"On the one hand, United Torah Judaism refuses to recognize the State of Israel and the burden of its law, while on the other, she wants to enjoy the fruits of being part of the government, in the form of receiving huge amounts of money and full control of one of the largest and well-funded ministries."