Welfare Minister Yitzchak Herzog (Labor), under heavy pressure from his party and other left-wing groups, has withdrawn his sponsorship of a bill to broaden rabbinical courts' authorities.
Despite this, Shas still has no immediate plans to quit the government.
The proposed legislation has already been approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, meaning that the government coalition is to support it when it comes up for a vote. However, in light of the great opposition the bill has aroused, this support is now in jeopardy.
The legislation, which is also sponsored by Minister Ruchama Avraham-Belilah of Kadima, states that rabbinical courts may deal with monetary matters, if both sides agree. Until now, the courts have been restricted to matters of marriage and divorce.
The new bill would also specifically allow rabbinical courts to deal with post-divorce monetary disputes.
"I am not ignoring the fears of a collapse in the status of the legal system," Herzog has now announced, "and in coordination with party chairman Ehud Barak and the ministers and MKs of Labor, I support a freeze on the amendment."
Ben-Dahan: Coalition Agreement Demands This Change
Rabbi Eliyahu Ben-Dahan, Director of the Rabbinical Courts, told Arutz-7's Hebrew newsmagazine on Sunday that the proposed bill means - or would have meant - a return to the legal status quo that existed until two years ago. "At that time," Ben-Dahan said, "Supreme Court Judge Ayala Procaccia ruled that the rabbinical courts could no longer decide monetary cases. In the negotiation over the coalition agreement with Kadima, Shas demanded that the ruling be reversed through legislation, and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed to this."
Passage of the law is therefore part of the coalition agreement with Shas. For Shas, which is weighing quitting the government because of the ongoing negotiations over the division of Jerusalem, the freezing of the proposed legislation should provide a further impetus to quit.
Shas MK Chaim Amsalem told Arutz-7, "I believe that the pressures exerted upon Herzog to change his mind were wrongly placed, as the proposed bill is a worthy one." Asked if this would increase the chances of Shas quitting the government, he said, "Yes, this will certainly be taken into account when we next consider this issue." He did not say when this would be, however. He further denied that negotiations over Jerusalem were taking place.