Degel HaTorah's rabbinic leadership is weighing whether to remove two veteran lawmakers, Moshe Gafni and Uri Maklev, from its Knesset slate ahead of upcoming elections, according to a report by Ynet Wednesday. Final decisions are expected by the end of the week.
The party is considering replacing them with younger candidates or new faces. Names under review include Menachem Shapira, acting mayor of Bnei Brak; Yaakov Guterman, mayor of Modi'in Illit; Leizer Rauberger, acting mayor of Jerusalem; and Miki Alper, head of the party's Haifa faction.
The potential changes come as the party faces pressure over its failure to pass legislation exempting yeshiva students from military service, a longstanding Haredi priority. Party officials have also expressed concern that the response to recent sanctions and arrests of draft evaders has been inadequate, and worry this could hurt voter turnout.
Some Haredi observers suggest the party may be reluctant to remove Gafni, who was appointed by the late Rabbi Elazar Shach, the spiritual leader of the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox community. The move comes days after Gafni received public encouragement from Rabbi Aviezer Piltz, a member of the Council of Torah Sages, during a tour of southern Israel.
