exposure | Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri presented the demand in order to supposedly prevent the mayors from trading in the elections for the Chief Rabbinate • Deri and Netanyahu are awaiting a legal decision on the issue, in preparation for legislation in the Knesset • The looming battle between Gerad Yosef and Geri Deri for the position of first leader of Zion – Yadah | all the details
Just before the signing of the coalition agreements, the Shas present another demand: to postpone the elections for the Chief Rabbinate until next year. The goal: to postpone the elections for the Chief Rabbinate which are supposed to be close to the elections for the local authorities, thereby pushing the inner close within the Shas over the identity of the first to the next Zion .
Aryeh Deri presented in the negotiations with Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu the demand to postpone the elections for the Chief Rabbinate, which are supposed to be held in about eight months – to next year, and to hold them after the Passover holiday, around June 2024, this is what Behaderi Haredim learned .
According to sources close to Prime Minister-designate Netanyahu, who spoke with ‘Bahadari Haredim’, the request comes in light of the fact that the electorate is partly made up of mayors and local councils, and Deri’s claim is that the mayors and councils will use the elections for the Chief Rabbinate for political purposes and trade their support for candidates against Shas parties , religious Zionism and Torah Judaism.
The elections for the local authorities are expected to take place in the month of Chesvan Tashfad (October 2023), and Deri’s goal is, as stated, to disconnect the election of the chief rabbis from the elections for the authorities, and thus to postpone them for at least six months after the end of the electoral system, only then will the composition of the electoral body that will decide the identity of the chief rabbi be determined and the first to the next grade.
‘Bahadari Haredim’ learned that the Prime Minister-designate agreed to accept Deri’s request subject to legal approval, and these days the issue is under legal review with the relevant authorities. If this is indeed implemented and incorporated into the coalition agreement between the Likud and Shas that will be signed in the coming days, legislation in the Knesset will be required to postpone the elections.
The postponement of the elections will extend by a year the tenure of the chief rabbis, Chief Rabbi Yosef and Chief Rabbi Gard Lau, who as of this time have not been informed of the initiative and have not expressed their opinion as to whether they will agree to extend their tenure by another year. The Geri Yosef emerges as the one who will lead at the end of his term the Council of Torah Sages that has been left without a president since the passing of Hacham Shalom HaCohen ztzel.
The postponement of the elections will also be a space of time for the chairman of Shas Deri who will have to decide the battle for the position of the first leader of Zion, which is expected to be a complicated battle within the Sephardic public, who, as is evident for the position of the first leader of Zion, will face each other, a member of the Council of Torah Sages, the Harad Yosef, son of Maran Rabbi Yosef Zatzuk’l, in front of Rabbi of Beer Sheva the Rabbi Deri, brother of the chairman of Shas.