Shas is renewing threats to bring down the coalition if their demand to reinstate monthly child allowance payments is not met.

The party has stepped-up its campaign towards achieving this goal, labeling Finance Minister Roni Bar-On “the enemy of children” for his adamant refusal to reinstate the monthly payments.

Shas MK Yosef Margi was quoted in Ma’ariv as saying, “If Bar-On fought poverty the way he fights the poor, the situation would be an entirely different one.”

Shas officials point out that in the most recent ministerial appointments, it did not request any portfolio, stressing its fight is on behalf of the children and not for advancing the party per se.

Bar-On believes increasing the monthly child allowance payments will result in increased unemployment, adding there are other ways to combat poverty among large families.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)