Gov’t advances controversial Knesset bills through deal with Haredi parties amid IDF draft law boycott

The governing coalition advanced two controversial bills in Israel’s Knesset late on Monday, after being forced to strike deals with the ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) parties, which continue to boycott coalition votes over the IDF draft law controversy.

The Shas and United Torah Judaism (UTJ) parties are refusing to vote with the coalition until a draft for a new IDF conscription bill is presented in the Knesset.

Therefore, the coalition had to “pay” for their support for a communications reform bill by advancing a bill expanding the authority of rabbinical courts.

Both bills passed their first readings and will now return to the respective committees for further discussion before second and third readings.

Also on Monday, Communication Minister Shlomo Karhi’s communications reform proposal was approved by 54 lawmakers and opposed by 47.

It aims to increase competition and reduce costs for consumers by removing licensing requirements and combining two existing authorities into a single regulating agency that would oversee all broadcasting and streaming platforms.

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, whom the government has desperately tried and failed to remove from her post, is sharply opposed to the bill.

She said it would enable “political interference in the work of broadcast bodies and endanger the free press in Israel.”

In a legal position paper written in May, the attorney general said the law gave rise to “real concern of severe harm to freedom of expression and freedom of the press, which are inseparable parts of the democratic character of the State of Israel.”

Another bill, titled the Jurisdiction of Religious Courts (Arbitration) Bill, was introduced by Shas and UTJ and was passed by a margin of 63-43. The proposed law would expand the authority of religious courts – both rabbinical (Jewish) and sharia courts (Muslim) – to arbitrate civil cases, given consent of both parties.

Supporters of the bill argue it merely restores a practice that had been abolished by a 2006 Supreme Court ruling.

However, the Israel Women’s Network warned that it would cause severe harm to women’s rights in Israel, and that “even disputes in your workplace, with your boss or a colleague, or conflicts with a neighbor or other civil claims could be transferred to the jurisdiction of religious courts, ignoring the protections of civil law and the constitutional rights of women citizens.”

Monday’s deal between the coalition and the Haredi parties was the second of its kind, after the Haredi parties supported a bill that split the A-G’s responsibilities in exchange for advancing a bill expanding rabbinical courts’ authority in divorce and alimony cases.

The coalition has been forced to pull all bills proposed by private members due to the Haredi boycott.

When UTJ quit the coalition and Shas effectively left as well, the coalition didn’t have the necessary majority to approve legislation.