'Minister Shlomo Kerei's 'Media Law' suffered a blow today (Monday), after Knesset members Yitzhak Goldknopf and Moshe Gafni announced that United Torah Judaism will vote against the law.
With this, the existing majority shrank to only 60 supporters against 58 opponents, with MK Avi Maoz also not expected to support the law - a fact that puts the fate of the reform at risk of collapse.
Despite United Torah Judaism's announcement that it would oppose the law, the 'Media Committee' approved the law for second and third reading in the plenum.
The one who found himself in a political trap was Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri - who was required to approve the media law as part of the 'deal' for approving Shas' kashrut law, when on the other hand the law ostensibly allows for desecration of the Sabbath and the broadcasting of prohibited content.
Following this, the Shas faction issued a statement:
"Since the amendments we demanded in the Media Law, according to the rabbis' instructions, to prevent harm to religious values, were not included in the final version - we will not be able to support the law.".
""However, Shas urges and demands that Minister Kerei split the law and bring to a vote only the sections relating to regulatory relief for the new channels, including Channel 14. We will support such a move, and we expect it to be introduced as soon as possible.".
The reason for the opposition of the Haredi factions to the media law lies in an opinion by the Knesset's legal advisor, Attorney Sagit Afik, who stated that from a procedural point of view, it is not possible to regulate at this stage the issue of the prohibition of 'obscene broadcasts' demanded by the Haredi parties, since the section was split from the original law at an earlier stage of the discussions.
In addition, the Ombudsman rejected the attempt to introduce reservations into the law regarding Sabbath observance, on the grounds that they were not discussed in an orderly manner and constitute a serious flaw in the legislative process.
