Ultra-Orthodox leaders and newspapers have hailed the impending dissolution of the Knesset and government — the latter one of the few in recent history not to include parties haredi – and many attributed his downfall to divine intervention.
“His name is praised in the world! said Rabbi Shalom Cohen, the spiritual leader of the Shas party, which represents Sephardic Jews. “A government that harmed and attempted to destroy Judaism and the sanctity of Israel and harmed the weak has been driven out of the world. He who is divine, blessed be he, had mercy on the people of Israel”.
Cohen, 91, made his statement from his hospital room on Monday evening, shortly after Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced his intention to seek the dissolution of the Knesset, which will send the country to elections for the fifth time. in less than four years.
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Cohen wasn’t the only one rejoicing. Similar sentiments were expressed by other chief rabbis haredi and in the ultra-Orthodox press.
Over the past year, politicians and rabbis haredi violently denounced the current government, mainly because of the actions of three of its members: Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman, Deputy Religious Affairs Minister Matan Kahana and Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel. They also showed nothing but contempt for Labor Knesset member Gilad Kariv, a Reform rabbi.
Liberman, who has firmly established himself as a political rival of the parties harediangered them with several of his policies, including one to raise taxes on disposable tableware – used disproportionately by families haredi — and another aimed at making childcare tax breaks conditional on both parents being employed, which would hit ultra-Orthodox families hard because many men haredi do not work and study in religious seminaries.
In his capacity as head of the Ministry of Religious Affairs – first as a minister and currently as a deputy minister with control de facto – Kahana introduced a number of reforms that brought him into conflict with the establishment harediincluding opening up the kashrut certification service to competition and a proposed law that would also allow conversions to Judaism to be carried out by religious authorities other than the Chief Rabbinate.
More recently, Hendel has worked to liberalize the market for so-called “kosher” phones – devices on which social media, texting, certain phone numbers and most other apps are blocked, making them popular among consumers. Ultra-Orthodox Israelis – a measure against which the leaders haredi furiously objected, even though it would likely allow consumers to benefit from cheaper “kosher” mobile phone plans. As these devices are currently only sold with certain phone numbers, they are easily identifiable and therefore traceable, so that schools, for example, can ensure that the parents of their students are using them. If the market opens up, giving consumers the ability to easily switch service providers while keeping the same number, this method of content control will be lost, the establishment’s dread haredi.
On a more personal level, parliamentarians haredi regularly insulted and protested Kariv because of his religious beliefs, even initially planning to boycott the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, which Kariv headed.
“We refuse to associate ourselves with such injustice,” Uri Maklev of United Torah Judaism said at the time. “The president-elect represents the reform movement, which is trying to destroy the Jewish people with malicious intent. »
Aware of these problems, leaders and spokespersons haredi celebrated the news of the government’s collapse, calling it evil and made up of “scum”.
Shas’ Diary, Haderechannounced the dissolution of the government by captioning “And all wickedness was consumed in smoke”, a verse from the Yom Kippur liturgy and taken from the book of Isaiah.
Another haredi newspaper, Yated Ne’eman, headlined: “The fall of the scum government: Israel goes to the elections. »
ח”כ יעקב אשר עדכן את הרב אדלשטיין על המצב הפוליטי.
הרב אדלשטיין הגיב: “זה זכות הציבור, זכות התורה!”
יעקב אשר: “זו הממשלה הכי קצרה שהיתה אי פעם כי פגעו ברוחניות”.
הרב: “הם לא הצליחו!” pic.twitter.com/utYXO25Rtl— עקיבא ווייס Akiva Weisz (@AkivaWeisz) June 20, 2022
Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, spiritual leader of the Ashkenazi United Torah Judaism party, also welcomed the fall of the government when briefed by Knesset Member Yaakov Asher.
“It’s because of the citizens, it’s because of the Torah,” Edelstein said, in a video shared by his office.
Asher then told him, incorrectly, that it was “the shortest government that ever existed, because it damaged spirituality”. (In fact, that distinction still belongs to the previous government, which lasted about 13 months, compared to the more than 16 months the current coalition is expected to last pending elections).
Edelstein then told Asher, “They didn’t make it! »
Haredim celebrate fall of government, evoke divine intervention