MK Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin of Labor – or, as it is formally known, the Zionist Union – reacted vociferously Wednesday to the decision to appoint Jewish Home's Ayelet Shaked as Justice Minister.
“I was not concerned by the appointment of Ayelet Shaked as Culture Minister,” Verbin said, “but a person who expressed radical opinions against the Supreme Court and tried to pass a law that would circumvent the High Court cannot head the justice system.”
"Shaked will be an anti-law and justice minister, a minister who will fight the legal system instead of strengthening it, a minister who might push the rule of law in Israel toward a dangerous abyss,” she opined.
“The appointment of Ayelet Shaked is comparable to the appointment of Yair Lapid as Religions Minister,” Verbin added. Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid is a staunch secularist.
After Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett announced that his party would go to the Opposition if Shaked was not appointed as Justice Minister, Yariv Oppenheimer, head of the ultra-leftist Peace Now organization, tweeted, "Shaked as Justice Minister is like placing an idol in the Temple. No less.”
MK Nachman Shai (Labor) also condemned the possible move, saying, "the demand to give Ayelet Shaked the Justice portfolio is like giving the Fire and Rescue Services to a pyromaniac."