The Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved a bill Sunday morning that
would give the interior minister and religious services minister the final say
in the destruction or rezoning of all religious buildings in the
country.
According to the bill, introduced by Shas MK Avraham Michaeli,
there are many instances in which buildings that have been used for religious
purposes for many years are slated for destruction or rezoning that would
constitute a desecration of the site’s holiness and disregard the sensitivities
of religious communities.
The bill also cites restrictions within Jewish
law for changing the designated use of a building or property from holy to
non-sanctified purposes.
However, MK Nitzan Horowitz of Meretz expressed
sharp opposition to the bill, stating that it constituted an attempt by Interior
Minister Eli Yishai and Religious Services Minister Ya’acov Margi, both of Shas,
to take control over religious properties.
In addition, Horowitz claimed
that the bill was also designed to give immunity for many buildings in the West
Bank. If the bill is passed, he said, any building could be casually designated
as a study hall or a basement of a synagogue and thus its destruction could be
prevented.
“The intent of this bill is clear: Granting immunity to every
structure, particularly in the territories, which are defined as ‘religious
buildings,’ and the granting of veto rights to the Shas interior minister and
religious services minister on everything connected to ‘religious buildings,’”
Horowitz said. “This is another expression of the obsequiousness of the
government before the true rulers of the state: Settler and haredi
politicos.”
The bill was co-sponsored by several national-religious and
haredi MKs, including Michael Ben-Ari, Uri Ariel and Arye Eldad of the National
Union; Uri Maklev and Yisrael Eichler of United Torah Judaism; David Azoulay,
Amnon Cohen, Nissim Ze’ev and Yitzhak Vaknin of Shas; and Danny Danon and Tzipi
Hotovely of Likud.
In response to Horowitz’s criticism, Danon told The
Jerusalem Post that the bill was designed to preserve the values and character
of Israel as a Jewish state. He added that the Likud-led government had worked
hard in this regard in the past three years, and would continue to do so “after
the Likud’s victory in the coming elections.”
“The State of Israel is the
state of the Jewish people,” said Danon.
“Only by preserving its
religious values, including the provision of a special status for religious
buildings, will we succeed in preserving the character of Israel as the homeland
of the Jewish people.”