B’Chasdei Hashem, it appears that even if the coalition doesn’t dissolve immediately after Pesach and manages to hold on for a bit longer, it won’t be able to pass Religious Affairs Matan Kahana’s Giyur Law.

Fortunately, the coalition didn’t manage to pass the law during the Knesset’s winter session due to the absence of various MKs due to illness or other reasons, and it was planning on passing the law at the start of the summer session.

According to a Srugrim report on Thursday, members of the coalition, which lacks a majority in the wake of Yamina MK Idit Silman’s resignation, approached Joint Arab List members to feel them out on whether they would be willing to lend their votes to pass the Giyur Law.

However, Joint List members have no intention of jeopardizing their relationship with the Chareidi parties, with whom they have an unwritten agreement not to interfere with each other’s religious issues, and informed the coalition that they will not support the giyur law.

The Giyur Law is most likely what actually led to the downfall of the coalition because although Yamina MK Idit Silman’s resignation was triggered by the chometz controversy, she later said that that was just the straw that broke the camel’s back. And as her husband, Shmulik Silman, said: “Idit won’t sell her Olam Haba for any payment,” adding that “she made a personal decision – there won’t be a daycare decree, there won’t be a Giyur Law, and there won’t be a Reform [Kosel] plan, because she’s interested in her Olam Haba.”

Of the issues he listed, the Giyur Law was the most serious one as all mainstream Rabbanim agreed that Kahana’s giyur plan was extremely problematic from a halachic viewpoint.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)