The Jewish Home party has vetoed a bill that would grant gay parents the same tax benefits that are granted to normative parents. The bill, which was submitted by MK Adi Kol (Yesh Atid), was approved for legislation Sunday by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, which decides what bills will receive Coalition support.
The Coalition agreement between Likud and Jewish Home stipulates that the religious Zionist party can veto laws that fall into the category of “religion and state.”
The Chair of the Jewish Home faction, MK Ayelet Shaked, announced the veto in a letter to the prime minister and to Coalition Chairman MK Yariv Levin. She noted that based on utterances by MK Kol herself, the bill appears to be part of an attempt to create “a silent revolution.”
Shaked referred to a Facebook status posted by Kol Sunday, in which she wrote, “For the first time, the government of Israel supports a bill that recognizes the gay family unit. It's not over, there are elements that willl try to trip us up, but we won't let them.”
Two weeks earlier, she wrote that “This is a revolutionary proposal because it is a subject that has not been raised in the Knesset to date.”
Shaked, who is secular, noted that the bill “seeks to carry out additional and very meaningful changes in matters of religion and state, which must not be made upon a whim. Such changes will have far-reaching implications for Israeli socity and the nation's chracter, and therefore, every small change in the matter requires in-depth thought and discussion that is meant to reach agreement, and not by force.
Jewish Home sources told Arutz Sheva that “for the first time, a law would recognize one-sex couples, and this needs to be raised within the factions first.”