UTJ chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf has issued an ultimatum to Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, demanding that the government preserve the current Shabbat status quo and internet content filtering, or his faction will withdraw its coalition backing, according to Israeli media reports.
The ultimatum was reported at 14:21 Jerusalem time by Israeli news outlets. Goldknopf's demand centers on two core issues for his ultra-Orthodox constituency: preserving the legal and regulatory framework that prohibits most public transportation and commercial activity on Shabbat, and maintaining the current state-mandated internet filtering system. The move comes amid a broader coalition crisis over the military draft law for yeshiva students, with UTJ threatening to leave the government if the exemption framework is weakened. Karhi has not yet publicly responded. If realized, the defection of UTJ's seven MKs would leave the coalition with a razor-thin majority of 61 seats in the 120-seat Knesset.
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