Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef in 2014. Credit: Moti Milrod
In his weekly Torah lesson in Jerusalem, Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef said that the future government of Benjamin Netanyahu must pass a bill allowing the Knesset to overturn Supreme Court decisions.
"There has never been a government like this with 32 religious Knesset members," Yosef said, noting that "perhaps this is an opportunity to amend the 'Who is Jewish' law."
By all indications, Yitzhak Yosef is referring to the grandchildren clause covered by the Law of Return, which gives civil rights to anyone who has at least one Jewish grandparent – even if the person himself is not Jewish according to Halachá. The Law of Return also accepts conservative conversions, a position that the Chief Rabbi doesn't like either.
In turn, Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman called for the Sephardic chief to be fired.
"It is not the first time the Chief Rabbi tried to interfere [in politics]," Lieberman said, calling on Prime Minister Yair Lapid to "suspend the Rabbi immediately and fire him after a hearing process, before the formation of the new government".
