In a letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Wednesday, United Torah Judaism (UTJ) head MK Moshe Gafni complained that Jewish Home was responsible for the “state persecution” of the hareidi community.
At issue is a policy that was set by the Ministry for Elderly Affairs, currently led by Uri Orbach of Jewish Home. The Ministry was planning to fund enrichment programs for elderly Israelis – with most of the money going to institutions where men and women were enrolled together. “In other words, the money will be going to institutions affiliated with the Religious Zionist community, not the hareidi community.”
The criteria was similar to other moves by Jewish Home-run institutions in government, which have sought ways to give Religious Zionist institutions priority over hareidi institutions, Gafni said. For example, he said, the Ministry for Religious Affairs – under the stewardship of Deputy Minister Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan – said that it would give preference in the hiring process for local rabbis to rabbis who completed IDF service. “This means that anywhere a Religious Zionist rabbi who completed army service ran against a hareidi rabbi, the Religious Zionist rabbi would be selected,” Gafni said.
“All this is happening when the supposed 'enemy' of hareidim, Yesh Atid, is no longer in the coalition,” said Gafni. “Jewish Home is continuing Lapid's campaign against hareidim, and even 'improving' it.” If Netanyahu planned to form a government after the next elections that would include Jewish Home and hareidi parties, “we will have to consider closely whether there is a basis for us to work together with a party that has no limits in its appetite for public funds, and endlessly injures the hareidi public,” he added.