Religious groups against Israel casino

A religious coalition strongly opposes the projected casino in Israel after they learnt the prime minister and the Likud party are in favour of the initiative.

Israel.- Bayit Yehudi, United Torah Judaism and Shas party are presenting a united front in opposition to a projected casino in Eilat. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Minister Yariv Levin and Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz were discussing earlier this week the possibility of allowing the creation of a casino in the southern city.

The response from the religious coalition came immediately. Naftali Bennett, Bayit Yehudi chairman and Education Minister declared yesterday (Wednesday): “It is forbidden morally because casinos contradict the values of our state, serve the strong and weaken the weak, and practically because we will all need to fund the damage and injury to the body and soul that will come along with a casino. Israel isn’t Vegas and it won’t be. We will oppose it.”

UTJ MK Moshe Gafni, expressed: “What it does to people, to families, it breaks families apart, causes severe societal damage, everyone knows this.”

Furthermore, the Shas party said in a statement: “Shas represents the poor in Israel and the weaker sectors, works for them and therefore will oppose the establishment of a casino with full force. Casinos will cause only destruction of families and severe injury to those who have nothing already.”

On its part, Tourism Minister, Yariv Levin, replied: “The righteousness of Bayit Yehudi members, who ignore the massive amount of illegal gambling in Israel and who don’t offer any alternative for Eilat, is not serious. I expect government ministers to deal with the issues affecting their ministries and not to interfere in issues they haven’t studied, that they are not familiar with, the facts of which they don’t know and which they don’t understand a thing.”