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NEWS
UTJ and Shas Oppose Freezing Large Family Law
by E. Rauchberger
The Labor Party in the Knesset demands that the Minister of
Labor freeze Mishpachot Beruchot Yeladim Law (Large
Family Law) of Rabbi Shmuel Halpert, which was approved a
number of months ago in the Knesset. The party intends to
summon the Finance Minister, Silvan Shalom, to appear before
it on Wednesday, 26 Adar for a debate on the issue. This
week the government decided to freeze a number of economic
laws which were transferred to it by means of private
initiative, among them the Negev Law. Regarding the
Mishpachot Beruchot Yeladim Law, the government has
no intention to change it at all at this time.
At the party meeting, MK Chaim Ramon demanded to freeze all
private legislation, and not to discriminate between law and
law. He then said: "The Halpert Law is the worst of all of
the private legislation."
At the end of the discussion, the chairman of the party,
Ofir Pines said that Labor demands that the Finance Minister
be consistent in all that pertains to private legislation,
and that he freeze, for a specific period, all of the laws
without discrimination between them, and only afterward
deliberate on each law individually.
The initiator of the law, Rabbi Halpert, said yesterday that
it is inconceivable to cancel this law, and that every
attempt to do so won't succeed. He also stressed that if the
government lends its hand in any manner whatsoever to the
cancellation of the law, UTJ will oppose its efforts very
strongly. "Without a doubt this will shut the door to all
possibility of our joining the government," he added. Shas
also made it clear that it would under no circumstances
allow this law to be touched.
The law increases the child allowances given to larger
familes under the Bituach Leumi system. These allowances
have been severely eroded by inflation in the past several
years, and this law restores them to the real value that
they had several years ago.
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