Gafni says will raise Draft bill if talk of budget bill arises
MK Moshe Gafni also celebrated his party's success at preventing the amendment of a basic law that is intended to ensure equality and prohibit discrimination.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFMoshe Gafni(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
MK Moshe Gafni said on Friday that if a budget bill is raised, his party will insist that discussion of the Draft bill is raised with it.Gafni made the statement at the convention of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah, the rabbinical policymaking council of the ultra-Orthodox party United Torah Judaism.The draft bill, which would determine how many ultra-Orthodox men are drafted to the IDF, has been a contested issue in Israeli politics with multiple election cycles instigated, in part, due to disagreements over it.Gafni also said that despite "[coronavirus] infections among the ultra-Orthodox population going down in a miraculous manner," no apologies were issued to the "great Torah scholars that are sitting here and instructed the continuation of the study [of Torah]" during the pandemic. "Instead," said Gafni, "they are making different excuses for" the drop in infections.Gafni also celebrated his party's success at preventing the amendment of a basic law that is intended to ensure equality and prohibit discrimination. The amendment prevented was The Basic Law: Equality, which would anchor the right to equality and prohibit discrimination in the broader Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty.The bill was strongly opposed by the Likud and its coalition partners in Shas and United Torah Judaism, as well as the right-wing Derech Eretz Party that is part of the Blue and White faction. The bill was of concern to ultra-Orthodox parties in part because it could upset Israel's religious status quo."Degel Hatorah MKs and local authorities will continue the struggle in each and every city" to fight for Israel and for "all that is holy and dear to us," said Gafni.Gil Hoffman contributed to this report.
