Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet Sunday with United Torah Judaism (UTJ) chief MK Yitzhak Goldknopf for coalition negotiations - but sources in UTJ are not pleased.
According to UTJ's MK Moshe Gafni, the separate meeting with Goldknopf is not appropriate, and the Likud should be meeting with both of the party's factions together.
UTJ is comprised of the hasidic Agudat Yisrael faction, which is headed by Goldknopf, and the Lithuanian-haredi Degel Hatorah faction, which is headed by Gafni. The factions have been running together for years, and function as a single party.
"The separate meetings in UTJ are not acceptable to us," Gafni said. "Like in the meetings of the negotiating teams, if Netanyahu or the Likud want to meet, it needs to be with me and with my friend MK Goldknopf together."
"From the start of the negotiations, we have insisted that the representatives of Degel Hatorah and Agudat Yisrael come to negotiations meetings together. That is how it will be."