Shas Party leader and Minister of the Economy Aryeh Deri is promoting a government bill for affirmative action for haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews). According to reports in the haredi press, the bill, which will soon be placed on the agenda of the ministerial legislative committee, will require each government ministry to allocate 5% of its available jobs to haredi candidates, while haredim will receive the same priority currently given to minorities and women for civil service jobs. Under the bill, a haredi candidate for a job will receive preference over any other candidate with the same credentials who is not himself a member of a minority.
Deri is writing the bill in cooperation with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the Ministry of the Economy. The proposed bill is already creating great expectations in the haredi community. "If this bill passes, it will be the second most important haredi achievement, after the revised conscription law," wrote commentator Yaakov Rivlin in the Bakehila haredi newspaper. "Money for institutions comes and goes, and we have already learned to live with reduced child allowances. An affirmative action bill for haredim in the civil service means both an opening to the world of employment and the emergence of haredi officials who will keep us from having to rely on people who wear knitted yarmulkas (modern Orthodox people)."
"Let us see a few haredim wearing black coats in offices, and we'll be content," wrote Avi Bloom, a commentator for the Kav chain of local haredi newspapers, adding, "Deri is absolutely certain that if the bill passes, it will be an achievement that will outweigh all the benefits and budgets."
Hiddush For Religious Freedom and Equality president and CEO Uri Regev said in response, "It is again clear that the only jobs that Shas is interested in creating are jobs for wheeler-dealers and cronies. It is again clear that Shas is not really interested in helping those "invisible" people it talked about in its election campaign; it only wants to strengthen its party apparatus, which is creating more and more poverty and "invisible" people."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 15, 2015
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