Rabbi Ariel Bareli, a member of the Tekuma Central Committee who leads a community in Sderot and is the head of the "Misphat La'am" Center, slammed Jewish Home and the recent Tekuma decision to run together with the party for the second election in a row.
Speaking to Galei Yisrael radio, Rabbi Bareli said "there's no revival ('tekuma' in Hebrew - ed.) for Tekuma, if we continue with Jewish Home we enter a wide party in the image of Likud B and lose the values of the Tekuma party."
"We are trying to see if it's possible to act through Jewish Home and still preserve the Torah values, and for now it's difficult to see that," said the rabbi. "It's hard to see that, because (Jewish Home head Naftali) Bennett passed a constitution making him all powerful, and he drops people into the list, and says explicitly that he wants to be prime minister."
Bareli was referring to the recently-passed constitution, approved by the majority of party members, which allows the party head to personally pick every 5th spot on the party's Knesset list. All other candidates will still have to run in the party's primaries.
Rabbi Bareli also criticized the Jewish Home rabbis, Rabbi Avichai Ronski and Rabbi Chaim Druckman, saying "Rabbi Ronski said it (Jewish Home) is closer to secular Jews than to hareidim, okay? That statement in my opinion is outrageous. I don't understand where it starts and where it ends."
Tekuma considered breaking from Jewish Home over a stated religious divide, responding to Jewish Home's controversial decision to actively campaign for the secular and Druze vote in addition to its traditional religious-Zionist voter base, and warning that the "Torah core" would be silenced in the party. Tekuma head Uri Ariel voted to split off from Jewish Home, but an overwhelming majority of the party's committee decided to stay united.
"Rabbi Druckman, his path is very important, but he is being led. The rabbis don't lead Jewish Home, they are dragged after it," said the rabbi. "All of the management of Jewish Home is to tell the rabbis that we don't have influence on these issues. If it was (about) the land of Israel, they would fight like lions. Like Bennett knows to do it; (but) on the Torah issue he shuffles up the rabbis."
Speaking about former Shas chairperson Eli Yishai's new Ha'am Itanu party which some had suggested Tekuma might run together with, Rabbi Bareli expressed support, saying "the traditional saying is that first of all we are loyal to the path, and not to political accounts."
"Politically, of course Eli Yishai's party will really help the right-wing bloc a lot more if it passed the threshold percentage; it's irresponsible of the Tekuma Central Committee to leave Eli Yishai alone, and if he falls in the threshold percentage it could be that the left rises," he added.
The past coalition government raised the threshold percentage, making it tougher for smaller parties to enter the Knesset.
Rabbi Bareli said "in my opinion there is an ethical and moral mistake here. This is an historic precedent to go together with hareidi rabbis. (Yishai's) Rabbi (Meir) Mazuz together with other rabbis, and I think this is something we should have jumped on enthusiastically, and I still can't digest this mistake by the Tekuma Central Committee."