Rabbis from the hasidic Agudat Yisrael's Council of Torah Sages met Sunday night in Jerusalem to discuss the coalition negotiations between the United Torah Judaism party, of which Agudat Yisrael is a faction, and the Likud party, Behadrey Haredim reported.
During the gathering, the senior rabbis instructed Agudat Yisrael's MKs regarding how to act and what to demand in exchange for their cooperation in forming a coalition.
Among the issues discussed in the meeting were the status quo, Shabbat (Sabbath) desecration, budgets for education, "kosher" phone lines, and the Draft Law, Behadrey Haredim reported.
The site was informed that the rabbis clarified to the MKs that the legislation of the Override Clause would be a condition for joining the coalition, and that without it, Agudat Yisrael would remain outside the coalition, depriving Likud chairman MK Benjamin Netanyahu of the majority needed to form a government.
The Override Clause, which the Shas party has also promised to prioritize, is an amendment to the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, which would allow the Knesset to reenact a law that was rejected by the Supreme Court, subject to the condition that the final version of the law will establish the ability of a 61-MK majority to enact overriding legislation. The bill was approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, but was not voted on in the Knesset itself.