Controversial 'Rabbis Law' returns to Knesset plenum

Proponents of the bill have argued that its goal is to improve religious services in municipalities or authorities where they are lacking.

By ELIAV BREUER NOVEMBER 11, 2024 13:37

Likud leader MK Benjamin Netanyahu with Head of the Otzma Yehudit party MK Itamar Ben Gvir at a vote in the assembly hall of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, on December 28, 2022. (photo credit: OLIVIER FITOUSSI/FLASH90)

Israel's governing coalition will pass the first reading of a controversial bill on Monday that will give the government the power to fund new positions in municipal religious councils for rabbis or other religious officials.

Proponents of the bill, led by its author, MK Erez Malul (Shas), have argued that its goal is to improve the lack of religious services for municipalities or authorities. However, the bill's detractors from the opposition and civil organizations have argued that its real purpose it to enable Shas to award lucrative jobs to dozens of party members.

Ben Gvir removes opposition 

The bill was scratched from the Knesset plenum in July after National Security Minister MK Itamar Ben-Gvir refused to support it unless he received a place in Israel's war cabinet. Ben-Gvir announced on Sunday that he had removed his opposition to the bill since he had de-facto become a permanent member in small security consultations regarding the war.

The government last year first attempted to pass a different bill with the same purpose. This former "Rabbis Bill" would have altered the makeup of the body responsible for electing municipal rabbis in a way that increased Shas' power in the election process.

But this would have come at the expense of the municipalities themselves, who would have lost the power to appoint their own rabbis but still would have had to pay their salaries. Therefore, a number of mayors, including from the Likud, fiercely objected the law.

The Knesset plenum on July 24, 2024. (credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The bill that is set to reach the plenum on Monday solves this problem, as it gives Shas power to appoint allies to religious positions in municipalities but would force the government to fund these positions, and thus, the burden would not fall to the mayors.

The attorney general's office opposed the bill, arguing in preliminary debates in the Knesset Constitution Committee that the law would grant the government a limitless amount of appointments and thus the budgetary repercussions were unclear.

Democrats MK Gilad Kariv said in response to the bill's return, "The 'small' and vague Rabbi's Law is more of the same: a corrupt celebration of jobs in the midst of a war, without any criteria, while passing over the local authorities and complete ignoring of the public's real needs.

The bill will enable a slow increase in the number of neighborhood rabbis and religious council workers, and, contrary to what has been claimed, at some point, these workers will also become part of the local authorities' budget. We will oppose this law, which is the direct continuation of the show of disconnection and hypocrisy that the haredi parties are exemplifying."