Shas chairman Aryeh Deri has drawn a red line regarding the controversial draft law, warning that his party will boycott all Knesset votes if no agreement is reached by the start of the summer session.
Speaking in an interview with HaDerech, the official Shas newspaper, Deri made his position unequivocally clear: “By the opening of the Knesset’s summer session, we must reach an internal agreement on all the core issues of the draft law — or we will refrain from participating in votes.”
Deri issued a stark warning about the potential consequences of any attempt to enforce the draft on bnei yeshiva: “The moment, G-d forbid, there is a single incident in which the military police enters a yeshiva or a home and arrests even one yeshiva bochur, Shas will no longer be able to remain in the government.”
The Shas leader also addressed the internal coalition tensions, particularly the possibility of removing MK Yuli Edelstein as head of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. “The moment we make such a move,” said Deri, “you lose the cooperation of the committee’s legal advisor. She’ll immediately declare that it’s a political maneuver and refuse to cooperate. After that, the Knesset’s legal advisor will also say it’s legally problematic. Then what will you do?”
Deri emphasized that key principles regarding the draft law have already been agreed upon. “The most important one,” he said, “is that there will be no quotas. We will not agree to any kind of quota system.”
In response to Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and others in the right-wing bloc who have criticized the “deep state” and bureaucratic dominance, Deri remarked, “I don’t like the term ‘deep state,’ but I can tell you this — there are things happening that are deeply concerning.”
{Matzav.com Israel}