The Knesset plenum rejected a no-confidence motion submitted
last week by Shas due to the conduct of the Interior Minister
and his dealings with the Attorney General. Forty-seven MKs
from the coalition voted in favor of the government, 16 MKs
from the opposition voted against and 17 MKs from the Labor
Party abstained.
During the course of the Knesset meeting MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni
lodged stinging criticism against Interior Minister Avraham
Poraz, saying, "This is an Interior Minister who gets up in
the morning and just thinks about how he can do harm--where
there are families in crisis who receive a break on municipal
taxes and how to take away their tax break. What will this
family live off of? How will it pay its municipal taxes? This
does not interest him. He only thinks about how to destroy
everything we've built here over the course of years."
Rabbi Gafni also attacked Poraz for his double vote.
"Minister Poraz is a veteran Knesset member, well- acquainted
with the voting procedure. He is not new like MK Gorolovsky.
But unlike Gorolovsky, who admitted his act and accepted a
punishment, Poraz is hiding his deed. Were it not for the
story of Gorolovsky and all of the developments since then,
including viewing the videotapes of the vote, we would not
even have known at all that Poraz voted twice. He would have
succeeded in hiding this.
"Poraz did not err. He did not do this innocently. Anyone who
goes to break into a bank and is accused of being a criminal
could, by the same token, claim he acted in innocence. I
suggest he voices his claim of innocence in court. Why did
the Prime Minister suspend MK Blumenthal for less than this,
whereas in Poraz' case the Prime Minister is not lifting a
finger? I demand Sharon suspend Minister Poraz, or else this
entire government is deceptive and fraudulent."
Shas Chairman MK Eli Yishai said, "The Ministry of the
Interior is acting in his ministry as if the place were his.
Quietly and without anybody knowing, the Minister runs around
in a mad frenzy on everything tied to the most delicate and
sensitive matters to Am Yisroel. The Interior Minister is
simply mad. The Shinui Party is trying to bring about a
change in the Jewish identity of the State of Israel. Poraz
is imperiling the Jewish people, and sometime in the future
an investigative committee will be set up to investigate the
ministers who systematically imperiled the Jewish state.
Poraz is bringing to an end or to a state of disintegration
of the Jewish state by encouraging large-scale aliyah of non-
Jews."
Yishai also mentioned how botei knesses and
mikvaos are being closed around the country due to the
activities of the present government. "This government harms
all of the sacred values of the Jewish people and not a man
within it is opening his mouth to blow the whistle on them."
He went on to attack the Mafdal for continuing to sit on the
government despite these grave acts. "Shabbos desecration and
opening malls on Shabbos does not interest them. The
privatization of El Al, which will lead to Shabbos
desecration, does not interest them. The closure of Torah
institutions does not interest them. They draw no lines."
Minister Gidon Ezra, who responded in the name of the
government, said that because "there is a dispute in the
government over various matters related to conversion and
citizenship, and since these issues definitely affect each
and every one of us, the Prime Minister intends to hold a
separate meeting to discuss this issue in order to bridge the
very large gaps that exist between the things former Interior
Minister Eli Yishai claims and what is being done in the
field by Minister Poraz."
Meanwhile, in a meeting of the Knesset's Interior Committee
last week, Poraz announced that he plans to work toward
allowing those who undergo a Reform or Conservative
"conversion" in Israel to receive citizenship, saying he does
not intend to "discriminate" against them, and stressing,
"I'm not willing to give the Orthodox a monopoly in
Israel."
During the committee meeting, Poraz also repeated his
previous declaration that non-Jewish soldiers and their
parents would receive Israeli citizenship. He said he intends
to set up a committee to assess cases where citizenship could
be granted to people based on their contribution to Israeli
society.
However Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is trying to put a stop
to defiant statements by Interior Minister Avraham Poraz
(Shinui) and last week even decided, in contradiction to
Poraz' declarations, that converts who undergo an Orthodox
conversion would be granted citizenship immediately. Sharon
also determined that children of foreign workers staying in
Israel illegally would not be able to receive citizenship.
"The issue of the Jewish character of the State of Israel is
supposed to be determined by government policy, and not
according to the policy of one minister alone," said
Sharon.
Last week Ministers Ehud Olmert, Zevulun Orlev, Benny Alon
and Avraham Poraz met with State Attorney staff members at
the Prime Minister's Office. During the meeting Poraz
insisted converts who undergo conversion in Israel should not
be granted citizenship. The majority of the participants,
including the State Attorney staffers, opposed Poraz'
proposal and Sharon settled the debate by deciding the
current policy would continue unchanged.
