The National Religious Party says that its threat to quit the government coalition is genuine, unless a series of problems associated with the dismantling of the Ministry of Religious Affairs are solved to its satisfaction. MK Nissan Slomiansky told Arutz-7 today that the crisis has several aspects:
"For one thing, the religious courts are being moved to the Justice Ministry. This in itself might not be such a bad idea - opinions in the party are divided on this - but the problem is that Justice Minister Tommy Lapid is to be the one in charge of choosing religious judges. He will also have other authorities, including some that he doesn't even have vis-a-vis the regular courts. His anti-religious interests are well-known, and we cannot tolerate having an anti-religious person in charge of the country's religious courts.
"Second is the matter of yeshivot [Torah institutions]. We cannot accept the fact that the entire national budget for yeshivot and Torah education will be funneled through the Education Ministry, without some kind of guarantees that the money will in fact be used for yeshivot. We suspect - it is actually much more than just suspicion - that within a year or two, the entire yeshivot budget will be dissolved throughout the Education Ministry for other schools, and there will be nothing left for the yeshivot. We demand that, until acceptable criteria are formulated, the budget remain under the auspices of a unit in the Prime Minister's Bureau.
"The third issue is the religious services: As of now, the Ministry of Religious Affairs is in charge, but no one knows what will be with the workers or with the services. No one has talked with them, and everything is up in the air. In addition, the budget has been slashed by 50%, ensuring that religious services in the country will be reduced to nothing. Not to mention that some of the employees in the Ministry of Religious Affairs, such as those in the Religious Councils, have not received their salaries in over a year! This is unheard of! Who will pay their pensions? No one knows! "These are things that, if not changed, will render it impossible for us to continue, and we'll be out of the government... If, on the other hand, negotiations begin, then we'll see: if we see that the move to disband the Ministry of Religious Affairs was done with no forethought, etc., and that there is no intention of doing it in an organized manner in order to ensure that the Israeli public receives the religious services it wants, then we're out. I'm assuming, however, that Prime Minister Sharon wants to have religious services, as this is a Jewish state, and also that he wants us in the coalition - but we'll have to see. So far nothing has moved."
"For one thing, the religious courts are being moved to the Justice Ministry. This in itself might not be such a bad idea - opinions in the party are divided on this - but the problem is that Justice Minister Tommy Lapid is to be the one in charge of choosing religious judges. He will also have other authorities, including some that he doesn't even have vis-a-vis the regular courts. His anti-religious interests are well-known, and we cannot tolerate having an anti-religious person in charge of the country's religious courts.
"Second is the matter of yeshivot [Torah institutions]. We cannot accept the fact that the entire national budget for yeshivot and Torah education will be funneled through the Education Ministry, without some kind of guarantees that the money will in fact be used for yeshivot. We suspect - it is actually much more than just suspicion - that within a year or two, the entire yeshivot budget will be dissolved throughout the Education Ministry for other schools, and there will be nothing left for the yeshivot. We demand that, until acceptable criteria are formulated, the budget remain under the auspices of a unit in the Prime Minister's Bureau.
"The third issue is the religious services: As of now, the Ministry of Religious Affairs is in charge, but no one knows what will be with the workers or with the services. No one has talked with them, and everything is up in the air. In addition, the budget has been slashed by 50%, ensuring that religious services in the country will be reduced to nothing. Not to mention that some of the employees in the Ministry of Religious Affairs, such as those in the Religious Councils, have not received their salaries in over a year! This is unheard of! Who will pay their pensions? No one knows! "These are things that, if not changed, will render it impossible for us to continue, and we'll be out of the government... If, on the other hand, negotiations begin, then we'll see: if we see that the move to disband the Ministry of Religious Affairs was done with no forethought, etc., and that there is no intention of doing it in an organized manner in order to ensure that the Israeli public receives the religious services it wants, then we're out. I'm assuming, however, that Prime Minister Sharon wants to have religious services, as this is a Jewish state, and also that he wants us in the coalition - but we'll have to see. So far nothing has moved."