United Torah Judaism chief MK Moshe Gafni has demanded that the budget for haredi yeshivas be equal to that of Religious Zionist yeshivas.

“We owe thanks to G-d,” Gafni said at a Tuesday night post-elections event in Bnei Brak, referring to the results of Israel’s elections.

Regarding what he would demand as part of coalition deals, Gafni said: “We will demand that the budget for haredi yeshivas be equal to the budget for Religious Zionist yeshivas. There will be no discrimination.”

Regarding conversions to Judaism, he said:

“They want that conversions will not be on condition of accepting the Commandments, as required by Jewish law. There will not be what happened previously – that we asked to regulate the Supreme Court’s power, and it didn’t happen.”

“We will continue to fight for the general public. We want Israel to remain a Jewish and democratic state, that Shabbat (the Sabbath) should remain Shabbat, that its status should be preserved. We will not allow a coalition without these issues [being solved].”

Housing Minister Yakov Litzman, also of UTJ, promised: “We will work to form a right-wing government as soon as possible.”

On Tuesday night, Gafni rejected a phone call from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, since he felt that Netanyahu had preferred Religious Zionism’s MK Bezalel Smotrich over himself.”

Source: Arutz Sheva

Header: Ultra Orthodox Jewish men pray at the synagogue, separated by plastic cells, amid the novel coronavirus pandemic crisis, in the central Israeli city of Rehovot, on September 16, 2020. – Israel has registered the world’s highest coronavirus infection rate over the past two weeks, according to an AFP tally. It is set to be the first country to enforce a second nationwide shutdown. (Photo by GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP)