A fierce political-media confrontation erupted Wednesday night after the office of Shas chairman Aryeh Deri launched a blistering attack on Channel 12 and reporter Dafna Liel, accusing them of spreading a distorted and misleading report about Deri’s fight over food-voucher eligibility.
Liel had reported that Deri was seeking to “adjust” the criteria for distributing food vouchers in a way that benefits the chareidi community, a claim Deri’s office called entirely fabricated. In an unusually sharp statement, the party insisted the report amounted to “a false story as part of an anti-chareidi propaganda campaign.” The office emphasized that the allegation was nothing less than “an absolute lie.”
According to Shas, Deri’s efforts have nothing to do with securing preferential treatment for chareidim. Instead, they say the goal is to prevent the exclusion of impoverished chareidi families under revised guidelines being advanced by the Finance Ministry. The statement noted that last year, food vouchers were distributed to roughly 400,000 families across every segment of Israeli society, secular, immigrants, Arabs, and chareidim alike.
Now, party officials claim, the Finance Ministry intends to alter the criteria in a way that “everyone will receive them except poor chareidi families.” Deri, they stated, has no intention of allowing such discrimination to stand.
His office stressed that he is prepared for a full-scale fight on the issue, declaring, “Rav Deri will not stay silent and will continue the battle until the criteria are restored to full equality.”
Channel 12 has not yet responded to the accusations.
{Matzav.com}
