Agudat Israel’s Council of Sages has ordered its four-man Knesset faction to press the government to enforce a Sabbath ban on El Al and to act more vigorously to ensure passage of the controversial “Who is a Jew” amendment to the Low of Return by the Knesset.
The Sages have warned that unless Israel’s international air carrier ceases flights on the Sabbath and Jewish holidays before the start of the Passover season next month, it will call on all Jews in Israel and abroad to boycott El Al which is government-owned.
The boycott would coincide with the peak of Jewish tourist travel to Israel. Economic observers believe the financially troubled airline could be seriously hurt since a very large proportion of its passengers ore Orthodox Jews.
Shmuel Halpert, the Aguda MK who attended the latest meeting of the Council of Sages, warned that the boycott was a certainty unless El Al complied. He said the Aguda MKs were also ordered to seek a meeting with Premier Menachem Begin “as soon as possible” to expedite passage of the “Who is a Jew” amendment. The amendment and the ban on Sabbath flights by El Al were among the concessions demanded by the Aguda Israel as its price for joining Begin’s coalition government.
The Premier pledged to do “all in his power” to push through the amendment that would recognize as Jews only those converted converted “according to halacha.” Persons converted to Judaism by Reform or Conservative rabbis would be excluded.
Halpert said that no specific time limit has been set for Knesset action, an indication, according to some observers, that the Aguda would not precipitate a Cabinet crisis over the issue. In practical terms, however, the amendment is given virtually no chance of passage despite Begin’s enthusiastic personal support of it. A solid bloc of some half dozen Likud-Liberal MKs are determined to vote against it as a matter of conscience and their votes, with those of the opposition factions, would ensure its defeat.
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