"This government has no agenda other than to discriminate against religion and persecute Torah scholars. They explain everything as budgetary motives but these are only cover-ups. Today they wish to pass a law that will harass Torah scholars who have pursued their study for thousands of years uninterruptedly, yet in spite and even because of it, we find added strength in the knowledge that Torah studied in deprivation creates great and eternal merit."
These were the words of MK Rabbi Uri Maklev when he put forward his no-confidence motion against the government in the name of the United Torah Jewry party in response to the continued harassment of the government of the chareidi community. "It is purely in order to camouflage the decrees passed against the general public and to cause an increased polarization of the people."
He continued, "We cannot shake off the impression that the intense discussions which took place in the various Knesset committees this past week regarding the budget, were motivated by hatred and reflected a persecution of a certain sector of the chareidi public. This is obvious, for even the MKs of the coalition who participated in those discussions admit to it. All the marathon talks involving the army draft law were geared purely to deflect public attention from the many harsh laws. These are mere diversion tactics.
"The government's economic degrees will reduce hundreds of thousands to below poverty level. And I am talking about entire families. But no one in the government cares about adding dozens of thousands of poor children and even though the government is aware of the hardships it is creating, it has refused to back down. We saw the party dictatorial hand and tyrannical, totalitarian rule which it wields in this new political scene. This is a dangerous deceleration striking at its own coalition members. This is a government with a perilous competition between ministers over who will put forward more reforms and pass harsher laws affecting all Israeli citizens."
