משה ארבל
משה ארבלצילום: Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90

MK Moshe Arbel (Shas) has appealed to legal counsel for the government's anti-discrimination efforts on behalf of MK Emilie Haya Moatti, saying that the Labor party is discriminating against her based on background or extraction.

"Under the coalition agreements, the Labor Party was given the Ministries of Transportation and Road Safety and Homeland Security as well as the chairmanship of two important committees in the Knesset: the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee and the Labor, Welfare and Health Committee," Arbel explains.

"The first five places on the Labor list as elected in the party primaries are as follows: Merav Michaeli; Omer Bar-Lev, Emilie Haya Moatti, Gilad Kariv, and Efrat Rayten. In light of this list, it can be reasonably expected that Emily Moati, who is placed third on the list, was to be appointed to one of the four senior positions given to the party. Despite this, MK Michaeli, the party's chairwoman, has decided that she and Mr. Bar-Lev will serve as Ministers while MKs Kariv and Rayten will serve as committee chairmen. It is no coincidence that the only one left out is the one of Oriental extraction," Arbel accuses.

"The Labor part's history is rich with contempt for and discrimination against against Jews of Oriental and Sephardic descent. Michaeli prefers MK Kariv and Rayten, who are listed below MK Moatti, instead of appointing her, a stance that is both counterintuitive and indefensible," said MK Arbel. "Kariv and Rayten don't even have the political experience to compete with her."

MK Arbel concludes his appeal by saying that "I would ask you to examine as soon as possible the conduct of MK Michaeli and the Labor Party in the context of the division of political positions in the current government."