Lapid accuses Likud of ‘moral bankruptcy’ over coalition deal with haredi UTJ party
Lapid says the Likud party has in effect agreed to reverse all the reforms enacted during the last government to integrate haredi men into the military.
By JEREMY SHARONYair Lapid(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid strongly condemned the coalition deal that has been agreed to between Likud and United Torah Judaism on Wednesday, accusing the Likud party of selling out the state to haredi interests.Speaking on Army Radio Wednesday morning, Lapid said that the Likud party had in effect agreed to reverse all the reforms enacted during the last government to integrate haredi men into the military and the work force and was endangering the future of the state.“The Likud is halting the process in which haredim are going out to work and it’s coming at the expense of the Israeli tax payer,” said the Yesh Atid leader.“This is moral bankruptcy,” he continued. “The Likud is saying ‘I don’t care about anything else, the most important thing is that we’re in power, so I’ll sell the future of the children of tax payers who will need to work even harder, and take their money and give it to people who don’t work.’“You look at the Likud and you say ‘you call yourselves a Zionist party, the national camp, and then an avowedly anti-Zionist party schools you in this way,’” and no-one’s saying a thing.Lapid said that his party was closely observing the coalition deals and would “make sure” that everyone knows what they entail.“We all live together here. I never wanted to defeat the haredim, we need to live here together..But they’re saying we don’t care what happens tomorrow. But I do care, and this deal is returning us to a situation in which ‘everyone dwells with their own tribe’, there’s no state, no-one cares about the state of the future of the country.”Under the coalition deal between Likud and United Torah Judaism, many of the cuts made during the last government to budgets which benefited the haredi community specifically or to a greater extent than the general populace will be rolled back and reforms to religious services could be repealed as well.In addition, the criminal sanctions clause of the law for haredi conscription, a central reform of the last government, will be repealed and replaced by non-binding quotas to be determined by the Defense Minister.Other concessions which have reportedly been made to UTJ are an agreement to repeal or strongly alter the conversion reform law of former Hatnua MK Elazar Stern, and to revise a law which abolished marriage registration districts.As revealed by Raviv Drucker in The Marker on Tuesday, UTJ has also demanded a veto on all legislation pertaining to matters of religion and state, a return to the level of funding for yeshiva students enjoyed before the last government halved the budget for stipends for yeshiva students, income support payments for yeshiva students as well, among other items.
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