Some of the representatives of the haredi parties on Sunday night did not hide their displeasure with the initiative of President Isaac Herzog regarding the judicial reform.
The chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee, MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism), was asked during a conference of his opinion of Herzog's speech.
Gafni replied: "It's not relevant."
The interviewer pressed Gafni and asked: "President Herzog is irrelevant?"
Gafni then said, "The President is relevant, but his compromise proposal on the issue of the judicial reform is not relevant, if they wanted a compromise - they should have come 30 years ago, not now."
The Minister of Jerusalem Affairs and Jewish Tradition, Meir Porush, also responded to Herzog's speech and said, "When Herzog is only upset over the fact there are no judges of Mizrahi origin and is not upset by the fact that there is no representation of haredi judges in the Supreme Court, even though more than 700,000 such citizens over the age of 18 voted three months ago, we are worried."
The comments followed Herzog’s speech on Sunday evening, in which reiterated his call on the Netanyahu government and the opposition to reach a compromise on the proposed judicial reform plan.
Herzog acknowledged the need for judicial reform, emphasizing the independence of the Israeli legislature, while also calling for greater ethnic diversity in the judiciary.
At the same time, Herzog called on the Netanyahu government not to move forward with its plans to bring part of the reform plan to a vote in the Knesset committee on Monday, thus delaying the expected Knesset plenum vote on Wednesday.
Instead, Herzog urged the government to work towards reaching a compromise with the Opposition, enabling passage of a more moderate reform plan.