Insults and threats: Israel’s ultra-Orthodox parties struggle to adjust to life in opposition

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Ultra-Orthodox politicians have amped up their use of personal, inflammatory attacks against members of the governing coalition in recent weeks, as the reality of their fading influence in government becomes apparent.

Politicians from the two ultra-Orthodox parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, have compared a government minister to a Hellenistic king who prohibited circumcision, accused a Russian-born legislator of not speaking Hebrew and appeared to make fun of a deaf lawmaker’s disability.

On Monday, UTJ’s Yaakov Litzman appeared to make fun of Yamina lawmaker Shirly Pinto, who is deaf, asking “how does she understand what we said?”

During a session in the Knesset plenum last week, UTJ Chairman Moshe Gafni questioned if Yesh Atid’s Vladimir Beliak could understand Hebrew, asking him from the rostrum if he “would rather speak Russian with me.” Several days later, Shas MK Moshe Abutbul screamed the word “vodka” at Beliak during a debate.

Following the announcement of reforms intended to end the rabbinate’s monopoly over kosher food certification last month, Gafni accused Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana, who is an observant modern Orthodox Jew, of seeking to “erase any trace of Judaism and prevent Jewish citizens from eating kosher.” He compared Kahana to Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the villain of the Hanukkah story. Antiochus was a Seleucid king who prohibited Jewish religious practices and desecrated the Temple in Jerusalem.

Pinto delivering her maiden speech at the Knesset, in July.Emil Salman

These comments mark an escalation in the ultra-Orthodox parties’ use of ad hominem attacks against members of a government that they have worked hard to portray as an enemy of traditional religious values and the Jewish nature of Israel.

In early June, shortly before Naftali Bennett was sworn in as Prime Minister, ultra-Orthodox lawmakers accused the modern Orthodox Yamina leader of being a brazen sinner who should “remove his kippah.”

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“This is not about separating religion from the state but displacing religion from the state,” Arye Dery, the chairman of Shas, asserted at a Knesset gathering. The new coalition, he said, would “destroy everything that we have maintained together for 73 years – even in the most difficult times – the Jewish character and identity of the state that allows us to live together.”

Gafni called Bennett “wicked,” while Litzman called on him “to remove his kippah. He shames his kippah and I think shows great insolence. At the very least, everyone should understand that he is a Reform [Jew],” Litzman said.

Ultra-Orthodox lawmakers appear to believe that they can shame Bennett into reversing course and restoring their influence by “defining him with the most vigorous curse among the ultra-Orthodox ‘Reform,'” says former Shas MK Haim Amsalem.

Bennett in the Knesset this week. Bennett is the first religiously observant Israeli prime minister.Ohad Zwigenberg

However, such an approach will not work and “lots of personalities and rabbis quietly support him,” Amsalem says.

Criticizing the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, Gafni last week declared that Bennett was a “murderer.”

‘Nothing to do but yell’

Over the past decade, the ultra-Orthodox parties have been staunch allies of Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu. In return, they have enjoyed a continued monopoly over several issues of domestic policy related to religion and state, as well as an exemption for ultra-Orthodox men from Israel’s mandatory military draft.

Past governments that have attempted to abolish Haredi privileges have seen those reforms erased after only a few years. In the 2013 election, Yesh Atid formed a coalition with Netanyahu’s Likud and managed to push through significant cuts to Haredi entitlements and pass a law requiring Haredi men to participate in the military draft. Those changes were quickly reversed when the Haredi parties rejoined the governing coalition in the next election.

According to Israel Cohen, a prominent ultra-Orthodox political commentator, the ultra-Orthodox community fears that reforms to issues like kashrut will lead to changes in areas of more existential concern, such as conversion.

Any breach in the status quo could open the door to further erosion of religious standards and ultra-Orthodox influence and the politicians are “doing everything” to both arouse their constituents and show that they are taking action, Cohen says. And while their options in the opposition are limited, they can express themselves forcefully.

“It is meant to reassure the [ultra-Orthodox] public and show them that they are working for them,” he says. “In the coalition you can take action but in the opposition there isn’t anything to do but yell.” He adds that the politicians believe they are preventing even worse “decrees” against their community.

A meeting of the ultra-Orthodox parties in June.Ohad Zwigenberg

But while many ultra-Orthodox voters support this approach, a growing number are put off by such outbursts and “provocations,” Cohen cautions.

To a certain degree, ultra-Orthodox lawmakers are expressing “their grief from being expelled from the paradise of being a crucial element in the coalition,” says Gilad Malach, a researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute.

“Anger is the most dominant element right now,” he explains, the budget cuts affecting the ultra-Orthodox sector only highlight the Haredi politicians’ “lack of influence.”

But while ultra-Orthodox lawmakers were, in part, using harsh language to motivate their base, their distress over losing influence is also real, Malach says, citing “Shas’ failure” at the election of the Rabbinical Judges Selection Committee on Wednesday.

The Knesset appointed its two representatives to the 13 member committee –which appoints judges on state religious courts– neither of whom was ultra-Orthodox. This is the latest sign of Shas and UTJ’s waning power over issues of religion and state since being relegated to the opposition.