Government Defeats Aguda Motion of Non-confidence on Mormon Center Issue

The government yesterday defeated, as expected, an Agudat Israel Party motion of non-confidence on the controversy involving construction of the Mormon university center in Jerusalem, but not before two religious MKs were ejected from the Knesset chamber.

Only five religious MKs supported the motion, presented by Aguda MKs Rabbis Avraham Shapiro and Menachem Porush. They were joined by Eliezer Waldman and Gershon Shafat of Tehiya and Avraham Werdiger of Morasha. Other members of Tehiya and Morasha abstained. Shas did not participate in the vote.

It was clear from the outset that the two-member Aguda faction would receive almost no support for its motion, and that the coalition was in no danger. Nevertheless, Aguda’s two MKs and others from the religious parties maintained a raucous cacophony during the government reply, delivered by Energy Minister Moshe Shahal (Labor).

Eventually, Deputy Speaker Aharon Nahmias ordered the ushers to escort Werdiger and Porush out of the chamber. Porush, winding up the debate for Agudat Israel, later announced that his party would not leave the coalition.

QUESTION OF GOVERNMENT DISCIPLINE

There was a question among Knesset members and parliamentary observers as to whether Aguda would be forced to quit the unity coalition government because it had tabled a non-confidence motion. The law — the “government discipline law (1962)” — is unclear on this precise point because Aguda, while a partner in the coalition, has no ministers in the Cabinet.

The wording of the law refers only to coalition parties which have Cabinet ministers, and forbids them to present non-confidence motions at the risk of forfeiting their coalition membership.

According to Shupiro, the Brigham Young University Center under construction on Mt. Scopus opposite the Temple Mount was “neither a church nor a university” — to neither of which institutions he objected. It was a center whose purpose was to lead Jews away from their faith, he said.

Shapiro is understood to have gone ahead with the non-confidence motion at the specific behest of his spiritual mentor, the aged Hasidic Rebbe of Gur, Rabbi Simha Binum Alter. Other spiritual leaders have been less certain about forcing a coalition crisis over the Mormon center. Rabbi Eliezer Shach of B’nei Brak is reported to have instructed Shas’ four MKs to stay out of the chamber during the vote.

SAYS WRONG GOVERNMENT CRITICIZED

Shahal, in his reply, said Shapiro was voicing non-confidence “in the wrong government.” It was, he said, the previous Likud-led government that had given all the required licenses and approvals for Brigham Young University to construct its center.

Shahal referred to the Cabinet decision to establish a ministerial committee under Religious Affairs Minister Yosef Burg to monitor the center’s activities, and he vowed that the existing antimissionary legislation would be applied instantly and forcefully if any attempts at proselytizing come to light. He also said that with all the licenses having been issued, it was too late to cease construction.

Aguda and the other religious parties are demanding that the work stop while the Burg ministerial committee deliberates on the controversy. But Education Minister Yitzhak Navon (Labor) is at the head of a strong group of ministers who oppose that option and insist that the work proceed at the site.