Opposition leader Tzipi Livni declared Tuesday that Israel is in a struggle for its most "basic and most essential" values, warning against the rise in influence of the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) sector.
"There is a struggle with a group that translates a Jewish and democratic state as a haredi religious one, a kind of theocratic state," Livni said at the opening ceremony of the "Political Week" series at Tel Aviv-Yaffo Academic College.Livni expressed concern about the growing influence of "price-tag" activists that vandalize mosques and rabbis that encourages racial profiling when renting out property or spitting on women that do not follow haredi standards of gender segregation.
The opposition leader also slammed the government for voting down a number of the socioeconomic recommendations made by the Trajtenberg Committee this past fall.
"The coalition has voted against all of the Trajtenberg recommendation one after the other. They voted against free education...lowering the price of basic commodities, and they voted against affordable housing projects," she said.
