It’s turning into a banner day for Bayit Yehudi in the Knesset as they take on the leftwing NGOs.
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Uri Ariel (Bayit Yehudi), who is also in charge of Sherut Leumi (National Service), instructed the managing director of the Sherut Leumi Authority Sar-Shalom Gerbi to cancel all national service programs for NGOs who acted against IDF soldiers, according to a report in Srugim.
Ariel’s decision came in response to the UN’s Schabes anti-Israel report that relied on reports and testimony from dozens of leftwing NGOs.
Ariel explained that the whole point of National Service is to serve the state of Israel and its citizens. He explained he will not allow a situation where Israel finances programs that act against Israel’s own soldiers.
The Schabes report exposed a list of organizations that gave testimony to the Schabes committee and are quoted and relied on at length.
B’tselem is quoted 72 times, and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel is quoted 4 times. Both currently receive National Service volunteers.
Gerbi cancelled the National Service for B’tselem a year ago, but Deputy Attorney General Dina Zilber reinstated it.
Gerbi had canceled their National Service volunteers after the director general of B’tselem reportedly would not define Hamas as a terror organization and for what Gerbi described as their conduct during Operation Protective Edge.
But now that the Ministy of Justice is also under Bayit Yehudi control, this time the cancellation just might stick.
