Likud backtracks on closing Knesset Aliyah, Absorption, Diaspora Committee

Flip-flop follows outrage from Jewish world after 'Post' report on merging it with haredi-controlled committee

By GIL HOFFMAN, JEREMY SHARON
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gestures as he speaks to supporters following the announcement of exit polls in Israel's election at his Likud party headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel March 3, 2020 (photo credit: REUTERS/AMMAR AWAD)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gestures as he speaks to supporters following the announcement of exit polls in Israel's election at his Likud party headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel March 3, 2020
(photo credit: REUTERS/AMMAR AWAD)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud backed down on Monday from plans to abolish the Knesset's Aliyah, Absorption and Diaspora Committee and to merge it with another Knesset committee run by a member of the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) United Torah Judaism Party, Likud faction chairman Miki Zohar said.
The Likud's goal was make room for a new committee on helping small and medium-size businesses by merging the Aliyah, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee with the Public Petitions Committee, which UTJ decided on Monday would go to MK Yaakov Tessler. A Likud MK who was not appointed as a minister was supposed to head the new committee and receive that platform as a consolation prize. One option for the chairmanship was former Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat, who did not receive a portfolio.
But after pressure from The Jerusalem Post and from the Makor Rishon website, which first broke the story, the Likud backed down and Zohar announced that the Aliyah, Absorption and Diaspora Committee would remain independent and headed by a Likud MK.
Likud MK Sharren Haskel, who was born in Canada to an immigrant to Israel from France and lived in Australia, is seen as next in line for a committee chairmanship. She maintains contacts with the Jewish Diaspora and has said that she understands deeply the challenges of the communities of immigrants to Israel.
MK Tali Ploskov said that as the head of the Likud's Russian-speaking campaign, which represents more than a million immigrants, she is ready and believes she will receive the committee chairmanship to continue advancing immigrants from around the world and their absorption into Israeli society.
Earlier, Zohar downplayed the reports.
"It is complete nonsense," he said. "All we are doing is considering adding public petitions to the Absorption Committee. This would only strengthen the committee."
But the reports about merging the committee angered MKs and top officials in the Jewish world.
Yisrael Beytenu MK Alex Kushnir accused the coalition of "castrating the committee and spitting in the face of the Jewish world."
Former Aliyah, Absorption and Diaspora Committee chairman Yoel Razvozov (Yesh Atid) said many matters of religion and state are dealt with by the committee and would not be if it controlled by a haredi chairman. He said there would not be proper oversight over the Immigrant Absorption Ministry.
"This is a terrible mistake," Razvozov said. "The Likud and its coalition continue to destroy the Knesset."
Razvozov said he would ask new Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin to overturn the decision.
Jewish Agency Secretary-General Josh Schwarcz, who coordinates the Knesset's Jewish People's Caucus said "At a time when Jewish communities around the world are in crisis due to coronavirus and rising antisemitism, and we are preparing for a new wave of Aliyah, now is not the time to change in any way the independent status of the Aliyah, Absorption and Diaspora Committee of the Knesset."
Rabbi Seth Farber, head of the ITIM religious services organization which frequently assists new immigrants, said that the committee was "an important forum for public discourse on central issues of Jewish life, such as conversion and the recognition of Jewish identity for purposes of aliyah,” and strongly criticized its abolition as a separate committee.
"Merging this committee with the Public Petitions Committee, to be headed by the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, will reverse the gains we've made in recent years and prevent future progress on issues critical to Jewish identity in the State of Israel and around the world."
Ariel Kandel, head of the Qualita organization that assists French Jewish immigrants with their absorption in Israel, condemned the possibility that the committee would be closed as “shameful.”
Kandel said that the Knesset Aliyah, Absorption and Diaspora Committee was one of the first to be established and was critical for overseeing the government’s functioning for aliyah and allowing NGOs to provide their input and advice.
He added that the decision, if carried out, would be especially harmful during the current COVID-19 pandemic when many Jews around the world are actively considering aliyah, and many new immigrants are expected to arrive in the upcoming summer.
“We need a special budget to fund the immigration and absorption of thousands of possible new immigrants, but instead on the very first day of this government they decide they want to cancel this committee instead, it’s crazy,” said Kandel.
“Maybe the work of the committee doesn’t fit their politics but it is unthinkable and shameful to abolish it.”
Also instrumental in fighting against closing the committee was the Peoplehood Coalition of hundreds of Jewish leaders and organizations. Tani Frank of the Ne'emanei Torah Ve'avoda organization lobbied MKs for the coalition.
"We could not stand aside," Frank said. "We appreciate that the coalition decided to keep the committee."