Shas MKs Yinon Azoulay and Yosef Taieb on Wednesday evening partially retracted their calls for a state commission of inquiry, led by a former Supreme Court president, investigating the events of October 7 and the massacre of over 1,400 Israelis and foreign nationals by Hamas. Earlier on Wednesday, the two MKs called for a … Read more
The attorney general’s office issued a directive on Tuesday that daycare subsidies for families of haredi military-age yeshiva students will continue until the end of November. The directive was a partial acceptance of a request by Labor Minister Yoav Ben-Tzur (Shas), who requested that the subsidies continue until September 2025, or at least until … Read more
Labor Minister Yoav Ben Tzur (Shas) requested in a letter to Deputy Attorney-General Gil Limon on Monday that the decision to cease daycare subsidies for military-age haredi men apply only to the 2025-2026 school year and not to the upcoming school year. Limon’s decision, which he announced on Sunday, was based on the High … Read more
The electoral body for the country’s next chief rabbis must hold an election before September 30, the High Court of Justice ruled on Thursday. This comes after it failed to meet the legal requirement to hold an election by July 1 and the previous rabbis’ tenure ended without replacement. The ruling was an unusually … Read more
A months-long feud between the coalition parties Otzma Yehudit and Shas flared up on Monday as Israel’s Knesset plenum convened for a rare August session. The plenum may convene during the Knesset’s summer recess following a special process initiated by either the government or a group of at least 25 Knesset members. Knesset speaker … Read more
The far-right Otzma Yehudit party is negotiating with the two haredi parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, in an attempt to cut a deal to pass a number of controversial bills and measures this week, before the Knesset sets out on its three-month summer recess on Sunday, an Otzma Yehudit spokesperson confirmed on Monday. … Read more
Interior Minister Moshe Arbel of Shas is unlike many other Israeli politicians. For one thing, he doesn’t particularly want to be a politician, and doesn’t have higher political aspirations. If it were up to him, he would be far from the public eye, working on his doctorate in law or spending time with his … Read more
Over 100 Israeli mayors demanded on Tuesday in a letter to Religious Affairs Minister Michael Malkieli (Shas) that he cancel his plan to increase his control of a committee that elects municipal and neighborhood rabbis at the expense of the mayors themselves. The government’s initiative was first proposed as a bill in 2023 but … Read more
Far-right National Security Minister and Otzma Yehudit chairman MK Itamar Ben-Gvir announced on Monday that his party would no longer adhere to coalition discipline and would vote in the Knesset as it sees fit, after the two ultra-Orthodox (haredi) parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism (UTJ), refused to support a move that would give … Read more
The campaigns leading up to Tuesday’s municipal elections largely flew under the radar, as Israel remains focused on its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, conflict against Hezbollah on its northern border, over 100,000 citizens who are still displaced, and numerous other security, economic, welfare, and social issues, not to mention thousands of … Read more
