The heads of the Knesset's Ashkenazic-haredi parties, Degel Hatorah and Agudat Yisrael, expressed opposition to Justice Minister Yariv Levin's call to push forward the judicial reform, Kan Reshet Bet reported.
Degel Hatorah and Agudat Yisrael typically run together in a joint list dubbed, "United Torah Judaism," or UTJ. The judicial reform was one of they key reasons the current government was elected, and sparked outrage among the center-left which has been fighting for years, through judicial activism, to tie the hands of the various Netanyahu governments. The reform, which sparked weekly protests, was shelved after the October 7 massacre as Israel turned its focus to self-defense, and the activists changed the subject of their weekly protests from judicial reform to freeing the hostages at all costs.
On Tuesday, MK Moshe Gafni, who heads the Degel Hatorah party, said that his party "has paid the price" for advancing the judicial reform, warning, "We will block it from moving forward. This time, it won't happen."
Construction and Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, who heads Agudat Yisrael, also expressed opposition, saying: "We will not pass the reform before the Draft Law. If it is possible to pass the reform during a war - it is also possible to [pass] the Draft Law."
Their statements follow calls by Levin go renew the efforts for the judicial reform, in light of the inaction following the hurling of illumination flares towards the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's home in Caesarea.
"It's time that we gave full support in order to rehabilitate the judiciary and the law enforcement system, and in order to put an end to anarchy, recklessness, refusal, and attempts to harm the Prime Minister," he said.
He added that the flares are "another link in a chain of violent and anarchist actions, whose purpose is to bring about the murder of the Prime Minister and bring down the elected government through a violent revolution."