Aryeh Deri, leader of Israel's ultra-Orthodox Shas party, railed against more liberal streams of Judaism for "inciting" contention on matters such as non-Orthodox conversions, pluralistic marriage and egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall holy site in Jerusalem in an interview with i24NEWS, Monday.
"First of all ... a Jew - whoever and wherever he is - is a Jew ... It doesn't matter whether he's a Reform Jew or a Conservative Jew or an Orthodox Jew," he said, asserting that the State of Israel was not built for three streams of Judaism.
'Don't bring your controversies here into #Israel. We're too small a state. We have customs in Israel, don't change them,' Shas party leader @ariyederi tells @NuritBen and @calev_i24, on US Jews challenging the status quo at #Jerusalem's Western Wall: #IsraElex19 pic.twitter.com/C4TrKdgyBM
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) April 2, 2019
"We have one Judaism here in Israel, we're not in the Diaspora," he said. "I'm saying this most specifically to the Jews in the United States: Don't bring your controversies here to Israel."
"It's taken us 70 years to reach a status quo so that the Ashkenazi, the religious, the secular can all live together. Don't destroy it with your controversy ... There is a mentality in Israel, we have customs in Israel. Don't change them."
One of the most contentious issues fueling the rift between the two Jewish communities is the status of egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall - the holiest site in Judaism.
Reform activists have long called for the creation of a mixed-gender non-Orthodox prayer section where women would be permitted to hold religious ceremonies and pray with Torah scrolls. Orthodox groups believe that creating such a space defies ancient Jewish law and tradition.
Besides the issue of the Western Wall, Israel has also faced criticism abroad for its policies on conversion and marriage -- both of which are regulated exclusively by the ultra-Orthodox Chief Rabbinate.
"There is one Western Wall, there aren't three," Deri said of the dispute. "There is one Western Wall, and anyone who wants to go there can always go there. It never detrimentally affected them.
"It's not an invention, Judaism … I'm not telling any Jew what to eat in their own home and how to behave or conduct themselves. But in the State of Israel, I don't want to have a Judaism [that] differs from our traditional Judaism for over 2,000 years," Deri said.
Gantz partnership with Lapid a 'mistake'
Deri's party, along with other ultra-Orthodox factions, have long been kingmakers in Israeli politics, forming an essential plank in successive coalition governments.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is in the midst of a hard-fought battle for re-election in Israel's forthcoming April 9 vote, has repeatedly sparked anger with his acquiescence to the groups on a range of issues.
Expressing his party's intent to support the incumbent premier in his bid for re-election, Deri said that Netanyahu's chief political rival -- former army chief and head of the centrist Blue & White party Benny Gantz -- made a mistake in joining forces with former Finance Minister and Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid.
'We are not built in #Israel for conservative, reform and orthodox. We have one Judaism here in Israel; we're not in the diaspora,' the Orthodox Jewish Shas party's leader, @ariyederi, tells @NuritBen and @calev_i24: #IsraElections2019 pic.twitter.com/AeG8cEyuGr
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) April 2, 2019
Lapid has drawn the ire of ultra-Orthodox politicians by advocating for the end of exemptions for ultra-Orthodox youth from Israel's compulsory military service and for teaching core curriculum subjects in religious schools.
"Gantz ... has contributed immensely, and he is a worthy person. But unfortunately he made a mistake in connecting to Yair Lapid and adopted his manifesto, and therefore we cannot recommend his beliefs" or join him in a coalition government, said Deri, who served as interior minister in Netanyahu's last government.
Deri said Shas would recommend President Reuven Rivlin task Netanyahu with forming the new government no matter the results of the vote.
"We think he is a good prime minister and should continue being prime minister," Deri told i24NEWS.
One week out from Israel's April 9 vote, most polls predict it will be a close race between the Gantz-Lapid alliance and Likud.
But without the backing of ultra-Orthodox and Arab parties, it appears unlikely the centrist duo would be able to form a viable coalition.
'I'm not willing to accept a wedding with a rabbi and priest together and say that it's a [Jewish] wedding,' Orthodox Jewish Shas party leader @ariyederi tells @NuritBen and @calev_i24, on Israel's rabbinate controlling what's Jewish and what isn't: #IsraElections2019 pic.twitter.com/5F6fFIzNJD
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) April 2, 2019
'Likud is not an elitist party'
Deri's Shas party, meanwhile, is projected to earn as few as six seats -- its lowest showing in the nearly three decades since its founding. Deri dismissed the polls, however, and said that based on Shas' strong results in municipal elections it expects to earn 9 to 10 seats in the national vote.
"The polls never succeed in actually hitting exactly what our target is. They don't seem to conduct the polls" accurately enough. "You had the municipal elections, and in the real election results we usually translate into 9 or 10 seats ... I truly believe that we will reach a much higher result than we are [polling to] at the moment," he said.
Deri said that the mission of the Shas party upon its establishment 30 years ago - to address discrimination against Jews of Middle Eastern origin (also called Sephardi or Mizrachi Jews) - remains pertinent today.
"[Likud] is not an elitist party. It's not, for example, the Blue & White party," Deri said. "To my chagrin, there's still that discrimination. It's in all the sectors, unfortunately ... and in our Haredi society it's more salient."
At the same time, he downplayed recent accusations of racism levied against Netanyahu and his Likud faction -- whose top five electoral slate is comprised exclusively of Ashkenazi Jewish men -- despite the party's popularity among Sephardi voters who have remained loyal to Likud since former party leader and Prime Minister Menachem Begin's overtures to the community in the 1970's.
"Menachem Begin, may he rest in peace, was the first in the big parties that actually gave the stage to the Sephardim ... He knew how to speak in their language and respect their heritage and that is what the Likud does," Deri said.
"Do they [the Likud] sufficiently represent [Sephardim] and give them representation? No, it doesn't," he said.
He added, however, that the Likud "is not an elitist party."
"It's not, for example, the Blue and White party."
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