In a
dramatic press conference at the Knesset on Wednesday afternoon, Shas
MK Haim Amsalem stated that he has no intention of returning his mandate
to his party, and claimed that his stances had been distorted to the
rabbis who, of recent, spoke out against him.
An article about
Amsalem's intention to form a new faction from nearly two weeks ago by
Shalom Yerushalmi of Ma'ariv catalyzed the attempts of members in Shas,
most notably party chairman Eli Yishai, to bring to the ousting of the
outspoken Amsalem, who returned to the country on Monday after a week
abroad.
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Yishai had presented Amsalem's spiritual patron Rabbi
Meir Mazuz with evidence of Amsalem's alleged misconduct as evident in
the article and other cases, in which he expressed opinions that were
liberal or against the Torah. The senior rabbi, head of the Kisse
Rahamim institutions who is considered the leader of the Tunisian
community in Israel, had reportedly spoken out against his student, and
informed Rabbi Ovadia Yosef that he could eject Amsalem from Shas if he
chose to. All members of Shas elected to Knesset must sign a
letter of commitment to abide by the rulings of Yosef, who is head of
the Shas Council of Torah Sages.
“My place in the Knesset belongs to the public that
chose me and supported me, I have no right to give it up,” he said. When
asked if he would defy the order of Yosef to resign, if it should come
to this, Amsalem reiterated his commitment to his electorate, and blamed
those close to Yosef, inferring to Yishai, with presenting
“half-truths” that created a distorted picture.
“My entry to Yosef's house is barred,
and has been in all my years in the Knesset,” he said, noting his
great admiration and respect to the senior Sephardi adjudicator, who
even quoted Amsalem in some of his halachic rulings. “Last time
there was an attempt to eject me from the party, when I spoke out
against the ethnic segregation in Emmanuel, I was summoned to Yosef's
house for a hearing. After a discussion, in which Yosef asked me many
questions on my stances, he said – Rabbi Haim, your honor is a
Torah scholar [talmid chacham]. How could I do anything harmful to a
Torah scholar?” The Council of Torah Sages was scheduled to meet on
Amsalem's case this Tuesday, but the meeting was called off.
When asked how Mazuz in this case and
Yosef in the Emmanual affair could have formed such a mistaken
opinion on reality, Amsalem explained: “There are great rabbis
whose world is solely around Halacha, they don't follow politics”
and are fed information by those close to them, which is not always
accurate or entirely truthful. When asked whether that could apply to
the political decisions made by Yosef, such as on his stance
regarding another construction freeze, Amsalem smiled sadly and said:
“You can figure it out by yourself.”
Regarding the letter from Mazuz that
was largely cited by haredi media outlet, according to which Amsalem
was supposedly called “evil,” Amsalem said he had a new letter
from Wednesday, in which Mazuz denies such a statement, supports his
student and issues no order as to Amsalem's political future.
The letter, obtained by The Jerusalem
Post, indeed says that, but also states that Yerushalmi's article
contains quotes of Amsalem “in the spirit of the [enlightened
scholars] from last century, which were inappropriate...” Mazuz
writes that it might be the result of distortions on Yerushalmi's
behalf, but either way, Amsalem “should retract the statements,
and/or sue the reporter for slander.” The letter also leaves the
decision on Amsalem's future in Shas in the hands of Yosef.
When asked about the possibility of
forming a new party, Amsalem merely stressed his dedication to his
electorate and promoting the true Torah way of encouraging employment
for those who are not the select few who can become great rabbis,
promoting conversions for Israelis from the FSU who have Jewish
blood, fighting racial segregation, bringing Israeli closer to one
another and to the Torah – all of these goals that correspond to
the original platform of Shas in its inception.
“A party is merely a platform, I will
continue to promote the goals I was elected for, and you'll see me in
the next Knesset too,” he told reporters, without saying exactly
with whom.
Amsalem has caused the other Shas politicians grief on more
than one occasion – most notably regarding discrimination against Sephardi
children in the haredi education system, with Amsalem leading a continuous and
clear line of separation from dependency on Ashkenazi institutions. In addition,
Amsalem, a rabbi by training, does not hesitate to draw on Jewish sources to
prove the importance of employment for those incapable of dedicating their life
to Torah study, or to advocate that the rabbinical establishment encourage
conversion for Israelis with Jewish roots who have tied their fate with that of
the Jewish people, such as the hundreds of thousands of olim from the former
Soviet Union who are not halachicly Jewish but serve in the
IDF.