Ministers postpone vote on Shas bill to give rabbinate input on legislation

The bill in question seeks to amend the Chief Rabbinate Law to make “giving an opinion to the Knesset in the framework of every legislative process on the subject of religion and state.”

By LAHAV HARKOV
Updated: JULY 20, 2015 02:39
The Knesset (photo credit: KNESSET SPOKESMAN'S OFFICE)
The Knesset
(photo credit: KNESSET SPOKESMAN'S OFFICE)
The Ministerial Committee for Legislation postponed its vote on a controversial Shas bill that would require the Chief Rabbinate to give an opinion on proposals related to religion and state.
The committee decided to wait three months before officially weighing in on the bill proposed by MK Yoav Ben-Tzur (Shas) and cosponored by MKs from United Torah Judaism, Bayit Yehudi and the Likud.
Immigration and Absorption Minister Ze’ev Elkin, who was part of the Likud’s negotiating team in coalition talks, told the committee that the matter arose during the negotiations and, by no coincidence, it did not get into any of the agreements.
MK Rachel Azaria, whose Kulanu party opposed the measure, commended the Ministerial Committee for Legislation for not approving the bill.
“Separation of powers is the basis of our democratic regime, and it must stay that way,” Azaria tweeted.
The bill in question seeks to amend the Chief Rabbinate Law to make “giving an opinion to the Knesset in the framework of every legislative process on the subject of religion and state” one of the jobs of the Council of the Chief Rabbinate.
Ben-Tzur submitted the legislation in question on June 8, three weeks after Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau said at a conference of the Israel Bar Association that such a law should be passed