The Shas faction announced it cannot support the coalition's broadcast law as currently written, because amendments demanded by its rabbis to prevent harm to religious values were not included. However, Shas urged Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi to split the bill and bring only the clauses providing regulatory relief for new channels, including Channel 14, to a vote — a move it said it would support.
Shas announced at 10:13 Jerusalem that it would not support Communications Minister Karhi's broadcast law in its current form, because religious amendments demanded by the party's rabbis were excluded. The party urged Karhi to split the bill and bring only the sections providing regulatory relief for new channels — including Channel 14 — to a vote, which it said it would support. The decision ends hours of uncertainty: earlier on Monday, Channel 12 reported that Shas had not yet declared its position, with party rabbis opposing the bill over Shabbat desecration and broadcast indecency, while coalition leaders were pressuring Shas to support it in exchange for advancing the kashrut law.
As The Zioneer reported on Sunday June 21, senior Shas rabbis had already delivered a sharp rebuke to Minister Karhi, describing his broadcast reform as an "absolute and total prohibition." The Zioneer also reported on Thursday June 18 that Haredi parties were divided as the bill reached its final legislative stages, and that the opposition condemned the regulations as tailored to Channel 14. The Knesset legal adviser, as reported on Monday, invalidated a procedural amendment to the law, a ruling the coalition has not yet resolved.
At 17:14 Jerusalem, it remains unclear whether Minister Karhi will accept Shas's proposal to split the bill, and whether such a split would secure enough votes for passage. The coalition's legislative path forward is still uncertain.
5 developments
- StrongGoldknopf and Gafni both say UTJ will vote against broadcast law
- DevelopingExposed recordings: Shas rabbis issue harsh criticism of Minister Karhi, call broadcast reform 'absolute prohibition'
- DevelopingKara opens debate on media law, opposition objects
- DevelopingShas senior hits back at UTJ: accusations false, harmful to Torah world
Source and signal
- Internal intake