Leaders of the Mizrachi and Hapoel Hamizrachi–the two religious groups with whom Acting Premier Moshe Sharett is now negotiating for their entrance into a reorganized Israel Cabinet–today revealed at a press conference here that they have submitted seven demands as conditions for their participation in the new coalition government.
The seven demands deal chiefly with religious education, prohibition of pig breeding in Israel and the regularization of work on Saturdays for certain branches of life in Israel where such work is imperative to the interests of the state. One of the demands stipulates the appointment of a religious Deputy Minister of Education.
In a statement to the press, Moshe Shapiro, Minister of Religion who is one of the principal leaders of the Hapoel Hamizrachi, said today that the demands presented by the religious groups are not new. “The bulk of them,” he declared, “were promised when the former Cabinet was to be formed, but to our regret were not fulfilled by the Cabinet’s majority.” He insisted especially on the appointment of a religious Deputy Minister of Education.
The formation of a new Cabinet depends at the present moment on the reaching of an inter-party agreement with the Orthodox groups, since the Mapai and the General Zionists–the two leading parties represented in the Cabinet–have already come to an agreement between themselves.
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