Knesset’s Religious Faction Attacks Cabinet Decision on 7-day Television

A Cabinet decision, reached Monday night after sharp debate, to institute television broadcasting seven days a week came under bitter attack today from the National Religious Party’s parliamentary faction. A spokesman for the faction said that “only our duty to national unity” in a time of stress had prevented the NRP from walking out of the Government coalition in protest against the Cabinet decision.

A statement by the group pledged public protest and efforts to secure a reversal of the decision which was described as “hasty, a provocation to Orthodox Israelis and an undermining of the Sabbath.” The statement asserted that extending the hours of television broadcasting was unnecessary when the three days of programing now in effect were, in any case, below standard. The Cabinet decision, taken over the opposition of the religious bloc, the spokesman asserted, “undermines the trust between the NRP and the coalition majority.”