Shas Party Petitions Election Committee Over Canceled State Ceremony

The Shas party has filed an urgent petition with the Central Elections Committee chairman, Justice Noam Sohlberg, challenging the Attorney General's decision to postpone a state ceremony honoring Rabbi Ovadia Yosef until after the upcoming elections. Shas argues that the Attorney General's directive contradicts a Knesset law that specifically set the date for the event. The petition, filed by attorney Guy Bussi, states that the decision is "unusual, sweeping, and disproportionate," asserting that the Attorney General's ruling effectively turns a legal obligation into a prohibition during the election period.

Shas contends that the Attorney General's decision is "draconian and lacks proportionality," especially since they clarified that the ceremony would not include election propaganda, calls to vote, or party symbols. They offered restrictions to prevent any such concerns. The party emphasized that Rabbi Yosef's legacy is not solely Shas's property, but rather the Knesset itself decided his memory deserved commemoration by the State of Israel.

The petition questioned whether the Attorney General would dare postpone the memorial day for Yitzhak Rabin due to his political affiliation with the Labor Party, arguing that "statehood does not require erasing the political biography of the person being commemorated." Shas maintains that any concerns about propaganda can be managed with restrictions rather than outright cancellation, stating, "When a scalpel can be used, there is no legal justification for using an axe." The party expressed hope that the Elections Committee chairman would correct the Attorney General's decision and restore "sanity and peace."