Aryeh Deri
Aryeh DeriMiriam Alster/Flash 90

Is Shas caving in on its fight against what is has attacked for years as ethnic discrimination? Interior Minister Deri stated yesterday that due to UTJ opposition, the regional school registration law would not be submitted. The law is an attempt to solve the problem that recurs each year when girls of Sephardic background are not accepted to high schools schools of their choice by making acceptance compulsory if the girl resides in the region.

"Since the regional registration law could not progress due to UTJ opposition, the Education Ministry will require all seminars [haredi high schools and post high schools for girls] in the country to submit a list of criteria by which they accept students," said Deri in a Radio Kol Hai interview.

Deri said that the seminars would be inspected according to Education Ministry criteria. "The criteria will be transparent and available to the public. They will be as detailed as the seminar directors wish them to be but from the moment they are published we will assess every refusal to accept a student in light of those criteria. The seminar will be obligated to state which criterion the student does not fulfill and if it is mistaken and the student does indeed fulfill the acceptance criteria, it will automatically lose its funding."

MK Yaakov Mergi, Deri's colleague who fought to implement the law, said that there was no choice but to open separate elementary schools for Sephardic girls.

"When a girl has studied from 1st grade to 8th grade in a Sephardic school she will find it easier to stay in a Sephardic seminary. Today the girls attend Ashkenazi schools and it is hard for them to acclimatize to a different atmosphere and new friends in 9th grade," he said.