“…I'm a captive in the hands of the Jews.…[Haredi] MKs vetoed it and said that according to the coalition agreement they have a veto on religious issues. They’re also using their veto for Muslim affairs, for fear that tomorrow it will serve as a precedent in the rabbinical courts."
Above: gavel (Credit: stockmonkeys.com / Wikipedia)
Haredi Politicians Move To Block Bill Mandating Israel’s State Sharia Courts Include At least One Female Judge
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Arab Knesset members from the Zionist Union Party, the Meretz Party and the Joint Arab List Party have proposed a bill mandating that at least one of the 11 kadis (judges) on the state sharia courts be a female, and haredi members of Knesset and government ministers from haredi parties are trying to block it for fear the precedent would eventually be applied to the haredi-controlled state rabbinical courts, as well, Ha’aretz reported.
Female judges serve on sharia courts in may other places in the Muslim world, including two in the Palestinian Authority.
Health Minister Rabbi Yaakov Litzman of the Ashkenazi haredi United Torah Judaism Party is leading the opposition to the prosed bill, which can be blocked by the ruling coalition’s ministerial committee.
Because Litzman wants the bill blocked, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, who initially supported the bill, now has apparently agreed to oppose it.
“Litzman is casting a veto; he doesn’t want it to constitute a precedent in spite of the fact that Islam permits it. So I’m a captive in the hands of the Jews. And all the talk of gender equality suddenly disappears when it comes to Arabs. As opposed to the support we [initially] received from the ministers, headed by Ayelet Shaked, the religious MKs vetoed it and said that according to the coalition agreement they have a veto on religious issues. They’re also using their veto for Muslim affairs, for fear that tomorrow it will serve as a precedent in the rabbinical courts,” Issawi Freij and Arab-Israeli member of the left-wing Meretz Party, one of the bill’s sponsors, told Ha’aretz.