Knesset Member Moshe Gafni lashed out at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, saying it kept on ruling against Israel’s Charedi residents.
“You know what we will do? We’ll stop paying taxes,” he said in an interview to Kol Chai Radio.
In the interview, conducted after the High Court approved the opening of a separate school for Emmanuel’s Ashkenazi girls which will not be funded by the State, the chairman of the Knesset’s Finance Committee compared the Supreme Court today to past Supreme Court panels.
“If we thought the Supreme Court, led by Aharon Barak, was the worst – it turns out the current court is seven times worse. A place where, like in history with the Russian czar, who would decide whatever he wanted, hurt whoever he wanted and did not have to answer to anyone. He didn’t hold a dialogue with anyone. This is the way they behave.”
According to Gafni, “The court rules against us constantly.” He warned that “if it fails to restrain itself and thinks it can really do whatever it wants like a haggler from the market… we will win, you’ll see. What will we do? We’ll stop paying taxes.”
He added, “We will win because we have been here since Maamad Har Sinai. They (the High Court) are only here now.”
He went on to address High Court discussions on the core subjects issue in school, mentioning the refusal to pay taxes again.
“We will stop paying taxes. What will happen? They’ll throw us in jail. The money is ours, but if, God forbid, they try to hurt our children’s education and stop the budgeting, there will be war. There are many ways to conduct a struggle. I suggest that no one test us.”
Have you checked out http://www.ywnradio.com/ yet?
(Source: Ynet)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
16 Responses
1. Most hilonim believe, as a matter of “faith”, that hareidim don’t pay taxes, and don’t contribute to the country’s economy. A more effective threat would be to return to the pre-WWII policy of seeking alliance with the Muslims – which indeed is probably the only “weapon” at our disposal.
2. Given Israel’s still somewhat socialist policies, the poor receive greater benefits that the taxes they pay would pay for, and since the frum are poorer than the frei (due to larger families, a preference for academic employment, and discrimination in the more lucrative sectors of the Israeli economy), cutting us off from the government will be a losing deal economically.
He is absolutely right. We need to stand up for what is right. The supreme court rulings are arbitrary and thee is no basis in israeli law for many of its rulings.
To akuperma, with all due respects – you are completely wrong in suggesting we seek an alliance with Yishmael. I don’t know if you live here (Eretz Yisrael) but they are trying to destroy us. The solution is to fight as the rabbanim suggest – they are presently completly opposed to making deals with our enemies. Hakadosh Baruchu will protect us as he mentions above and they will see that He is the only One running the world.
akuperma – Where are you getting your figures from – or are you working off of Hiloni/Dati Leumi stereotypes?
and then to recommend the Neturei Karta approach????
There are many, many Chareidim who work in well paying, high tax rate jobs, particularly in hi-tech.
Also, the community with the greatest pct. differential between their benefits and taxes is the Israeli Arab sector.
Supreme court is ABOVE THE LAW any and all laws. Just like obama in America he is above any and all laws. May they both get their Just rewards
Threatening to stop paying taxes is laughable — how much taxes the Chareidim pay already. Alliance with the Muslims – osur for a couple of reasons and very impractical.
What taxes?
Great – the Chareidim won’t pay their taxes – and the gov’t will respond by not paying subsidies – Gov’t wins
Sorry,
What is Gafni complaining about? What did the supreme court rule about now?
BTW, in democratic countries, one does not threaten the Supreme Court. I guess Israeli culture is different.
#4- I did NOT say that Hareidim don’t pay taxes – I said that the hilonim believe they don’t, and therefore will be unintimidated by a threat to stop paying them. Frankly, most hilonim feel that “we” are their misfortune (yes, this is a parody of Nazi propaganda), so there is no way we can negotiate with the Hilonim. They want a place where they can be free from the yoke of Torah, and we want a Torah state to live in – there is no room for compromise.
P.S. the only threat that might intimidate the hilonim is to ally with the Muslims, but probably that isn’t politically realistic at this time – however they don’t object to Jews learning Torah and doing Mitsvos, and having political sovereignty is not critical for frum Jews – so there might be room to negotiate some day.
#6 I think you got a good point, charedim dont pay taxes. That’s what the chilonim and dati leumi claim. I think now will be a good time to get the facts on the table. out of 150K families (minimum based on a mere fact of that amout turning out for a recent protest in emanual saga) noone pays taxes, they dont have stores, (sales tax) nobody works (income tax) (people with stores, people shnurring, people with businesses) yes tefillin tashmushei kedushe are only 2 examples of charedim making money from selling all over the world. and lets stop dreaming. lets just stop paying taxes 1 month and well see the true numbers not the hate influenced estimates. (opinions)
Akuperma, without “the Evil Medina”, the great majority of the Israeli Chareidim would have to go to work. A Muslim government would have never paid so much money to keep the Chareidim in kollel.
#12 – almost all do go to work – do you see them sitting around street corners twiddling their thumbs?
A high percentage of hareidim prefer to work in what the goyim would call “academic life”. Since there is an oversupply of scholars,the pay (for teachers, graduate fellows, etc. – or as we say, rabbanim, kollel, etc.) is low. While the yeshiva industry is a major source of macroeconomic stimulus (and of foreign exchange – as it attracts a huge amount of overseas, meaning from golus, investment), it is quite unappreciated by the frei Jews (remember, they became zionists in the hope of getting away from yiddishkeit).
Frum economic decisions are rarely motivated by economics. We often avoid high paying professions if they would pose halachic issues (we also choose to live in places like New York which offer horrific housing at excessive prices).
Akuperma, learning is a great thing, but it is not a job, it does not generate income and requieres outside support to continue. Whom are you kidding with ‘the academic life”?
If all of Israel were in kollel, it would collapse — “Kol Torah she ayen ima melocha…”
There are religious judges on the Supreme Court. Given the tremendous ability of Charedi dayanim, if some of the most promising Charedi dayanim could also be trained in secular law as is typical with MO dayanim, they would be able eventually to serve on the Israeli Supreme Court.