Interior Minister and Shas party chairman Aryeh Deri refused Wednesday morning to condemn the Otzma Yehudit party, adding that he hoped to work in conjunction with the party’s representatives in the 21st Knesset on issues of religion and state.
Following the alliance last week between the Jewish Home and Otzma Yehudit, major Jewish organizations in the US – including AIPAC and the American Jewish Committee – and some Israeli political leaders castigated Otzma Yehudit, accusing the party of holding racist and radical views.
Otzma Yehudit, founded by former Kach activists Michael Ben-Ari, Baruch Marzel, and Bentzi Gopstein, is often referred to as the political heir to Rabbi Meir Kahane’s Kach movement, which was banned in 1994.
On Tuesday, Education Minister Naftali Bennett (New Right) condemned Otzma, linking it to the late Rabbi Kahane’s Kach party.
“There is a huge rift between our positions. I don’t accept their positions at all. People who see Kahane as an archetype are not fit to serve in the Knesset – but the same is true of those who undermine Israel.”
But on Wednesday, Interior Minister Aryeh Deri rejected the recent string of condemnations of Otzma Yehudit, adding that he viewed the faction as a potential ally in the next Knesset on issues of religion and state.
“Radical Arab Knesset members… are legitimate, but Otzma Yehudit isn’t?” Deri asked rhetorically during an interview with Radio Kol Hai.
“They are religiously observant people with whom we can cooperate. Am I going to condemn them? Absolutely not. We can work together on issues like Shabbat, the Western Wall, and all the other struggles over the Status Quo [of religion and state]. I see them as a part of the next Knesset.”