Last week, 22 new dayanim were appointed to Chief Rabbinate of Israel batei din nationwide. After such a prolonged delay in new appointments, there was a measure of satisfaction among the religious political parties for the new dayanim will begin to address the overloaded national batei din system. Actually the chareidi parties were pleased for they succeeded in gaining a number of appointments and keeping out dayanim whom they feel are too liberal in their hashkafa.

However, accompanying the satisfaction is a measure of anger from Yahadut Hatorah towards the Israel Bar Association (IBA) and Justice Minister (Bayit Yehudi) Ayelet Shaked. The members of the Ashkenazi chareidi faction in Knesset express a feeling of betrayal by Shaked as it appears a deal was reached between Shaked and the IBA, albeit an unsuccessful deal, in which rabbonim affiliated with Tzohar Rabbonim would be among the new dayanim appointed. In return for this, Shaked would continue the bill to divide the sectors in the association, which the IBA fears will be abolished.

According to chareidi sources, they established a deal ahead of the appointments involving heads of Knesset factions; Aryeh Deri and Moshe Gafne with Shaked in which they would go to the appointments committee with the Livni plan, to appoint 15 dayanim (5 Ashkenazi, 5 Sephardi, 5 dati leumi) but this was not done in reality. Yahadut Hatorah blames Shaked for backing out of the agreement during the meeting to appoint the 22 dayanim. She denies there ever was a deal but the senior minister is now accused of closing a deal with the IBA to appoint rabbonim affiliated with Tzohar.

After realizing what was taking place amid an awareness the chareidim may break from the coalition, committee chairman Minister (Likud) Yuval Steinitz quickly realized what he needs to do and he blocked the appointment of Tzohar dayanim. While no harm resulted and the appointments meet the demands of Yahadut Hatorah, it appears party officials prefer to remain angry as Shaked for backing out of a deal and they are letting her know just how they feel.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)