THE END OF THE MINISTRY OF RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS?
September 3, 2000 - Arutz Sheva News Service - The government approved Prime Minister Barak's proposal today to dismantle the Ministry for Religious Affairs. The proposal calls for the ministry's authorities to be dispersed among the municipal councils and other government offices. MK Yigal Bibi (National Religious Party), who served as Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs under Binyamin Netanyahu and under Barak up until a few months ago, told Arutz-7 today that the vote today is "devoid of content." Bibi said, "The declaration to close the Ministry does not require a Knesset majority, but the transfer of the authorities to other government offices does require such a majority, which he does not have.
This is simply another step in his 'secular revolution,' in which over the next few days we will hear how corrupt the Ministry of Religious Affairs is, and he will ride on this wave of hatred. It is too bad that the people of Israel have to suffer, in that religious services will not be provided over the coming period. This is simply a bluff, planned by Barak's advisors... [Acting Minister for Religious Affairs] Beilin had good intentions in attempting to fix some of the problems in the Ministry, but now Barak has ruined it for him... In addition, the ministry's entire yearly budget is 500 million shekels - not including the per-capita stipends for yeshiva students - so how can it be [as is claimed] that 'hundreds of millions' will be saved by this move?" MK Tommy Lapid, head of the anti-religious Shinui party, agreed - albeit from the opposite direction - that the Barak plan to dismantle the Ministry of Religious Affairs is "hollow," in that "all the clerks and budgets will simply be transferred to other government offices." Lapid calls for the firing of all the "unnecessary clerks," and the cessation of all Religious Ministry activities. "If this is the beginning of Barak's secular revolution," Lapid said, "it is totally meaningless." (1)
THE DISMANTLING OF THE MINISTRY OF RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS
Sept. 17, 2000 - Prime Minister Ehud Barak's secular revolution appears to be becoming a reality, with the help of Justice Minister Yossi Beilin. Beilin has already begun dismantling the Ministry of Religious Affairs, as outlined in a four-month plan he and his staffers have drawn up. The process begins with the closure of certain departments - a move that does not require Knesset approval - within a month and a half.
Beilin, whose plan it is to "give other religions in Israel a greater sense of partnership," explains his strategy in his introduction to the program (quoted in HaTzofeh): "Our diplomatic relations with the Vatican are improving... and the same is true regarding the appeasement process with the Arab world. This will require us in the coming years to increase budgetary allocations towards developing Islamic and Christian institutions... Inter-religious understanding and coordination will be required... The dismantling of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, and the transfer of its activities to other government ministries, is indicated... It behooves us to find a way to grant the other streams of Judaism and other religions in Israel a feeling of greater partnership and equality..."
The Ministry's departments that are scheduled to be closed over the next few weeks include: Diaspora; Ritual Items; Halakhic [Jewish Legal] Research; Holy Sites; Synagogues; Mikvaot [Ritual Baths] and Eruvin [Ritual Sabbath Domain Delimiters]; the Ministry's Northern Branch; and others.
Arutz-7's Yosef Zalmanson asked Yossi Beilin's spokesman Amir Abramovitz today how the "need to increase inter-religious cooperation and understanding" necessitates the closing of the one government ministry that appears to be best qualified to take on exactly this task. Abramovitz responded, "The Ministry of Religious Affairs is the one single obstacle to the provision of proper religious services. The Attorney-General has said that it is far from properly-run. The problem lies in its very existence. The Minister has too much power and the control of too many funds... The Ministry has become such a desired 'goodie' for Shas and the NRP that recent coalition agreements stipulate that there be two Deputy Ministers and the rotation of the Minister and Director-General every year" (2)
ARAFAT RENEGES ON JOSEPH'S TOMB PROMISE
September 13, 2000 - by Amos Harel - Ha'aretz Military Correspondent The Palestinian Authority is reneging on its commitment to accommodate Israeli repair and restoration work at damaged structures in the Joseph's Tomb compound in Nablus. Israeli requests to the PA on this matter have yet to show results. In the aftermath of "Naqba" riots last May, PA Chairman Yasser Arafat promised Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak that repair work could be done at the Nablus compound. Hundreds of Palestinians tried to break into the tomb area during the May skirmishes. Members of "Tanzim" para-military organization fired shots at Israeli soldiers in the compound area, wounding one IDF officer. IDF and Border Police gunfire resulted in the deaths of two armed Palestinians, and injuries to many demonstrators. After the violence, Arafat assented to the repairs at Joseph's Tomb.. The fate of repairs at the compound now depends upon "the intervention of top [Israeli] political leaders" Israeli security sources say.. Joseph's tomb has been one of the West Bank's volatile flash-points since the signing of the Oslo accords.. Interim accord negotiations led to an understanding prohibiting changes in the status of sites sacred to Judaism that are within Palestinian Authority "A" areas. (3)
FRANCE AGREES TO UN OVERSIGHT OF MOUNT
by Aluf Benn and Amira Hass Ha'aretz Correspondents: France has indicated its readiness to take part in an American initiative to transfer sovereignty over the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to the supervision of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. This follows contacts held between Paris and Washington in which the administration tried to get the French to help advance Israeli-Palestinian negotiations over the thorny Jerusalem question. Abbas (Abu Mazen), said yesterday in a Voice of Palestine interview that Jerusalem is not the only obstacle to peace and that all the other issues on the agenda must also be resolved.
He stated that the Palestinians' demand was not only for sovereignty at the holy places but over all of East Jerusalem - the area Israel captured in the 1967 war and then annexed. Israel, he said, had rejected the idea of having sovereignty at Haram al-Sharif - "the Noble Sanctuary," as the Palestinians call the Temple Mount - accrue to the Jerusalem Committee of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. (4)
CALLS FOR RELIGIOUS PUBLIC TO WAKE UP MK
Sept. 20, 2000 Yigal Bibi (National Religious Party), a former Deputy Religious Affairs Minister, said that the religious public has still not awakened to the severe consequences of Barak's secular revolution - especially for religious education. He called on the public to hold public protests outside ministers' homes, conduct mass vigils, and take other forms of protest against the planned measures.
MK Natan Sharansky, leader of the Yisrael B'Aliyah party, blames Prime Minister Barak for "enlisting half the nation against the other" in the struggle over what has become known as the secular revolution, and "this could destroy the nation." He did not commit to vote one way or other regarding Barak's secular proposals, but criticized the manner in which they were presented. (5)
ISRAEL SAYS U.N. SHOULD TAKE OVER TEMPLE MOUNT
September 26, 2000 - The government of Israel is strenuously promoting an idea once unthinkable: entrusting Judaism's holiest site to United Nations control. The acting foreign minister, Shlomo Ben Ami, leaves for Cairo today, where he is to sound out Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak, on a proposal to transfer sovereignty of the Temple Mount, or Haram al-Sharif - 86 hectares of hallowed ground on the most fiercely contested hilltop in the Middle East - to the supervision.(6)
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- Bibliography:
- (1) http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com
(2) http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com
(3) http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/htmls/kat6_3.htm
(4) http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/scripts/article.asp?mador=14&datee=09/19/00&id=93578
(5) http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com
(6) http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Distribution/Redirect_Artifact/0,4678,0-372838,00.htmlBACK