NRP central cmte. votes against leaving Sharon government

The National Religious Party central committee voted Monday evening against leaving Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's coalition. In a secret ballot, the central committee voted in favor of a proposal put forth by Welfare Minister Zevulun Orlev, against leaving the government.

According to Orlev's proposal, which won 66% of the votes, the NRP will remain in the coalition at present, and will leave if no national referendum is held on the disengagement plan prior to a Knesset decision on evacuating settlements.

Ahead of the vote, members of the central committee called on Party Chairman Effi Eitam to step down. The members burst out after Eitam said, "You called me a year and a half ago and said the party can't pass the minimum percent of voters to be elected to Knesset."

Fighting to be heard over calls from the crowd, he added, "You called me and I came in all innocence and integrity. You can vote to dismiss me and tell me to go home, but I tell you that if it is unity and partnership you seek, I am offering you both, generously and honestly."

Earlier in the speech, Eitam commented on a demonstration held in Jerusalem on Sunday protesting the disengagement plan.

He said protesters had sent the message that the NRP should leave the government. "They said one thing clearly. You can't sit in this government, you must return to the path we set for you, if today we take up the path of conniving deal-making they [the protesters] will cease to see us as their representatives."

Eitam also apologized to the NRP central committee, for not calling the meeting three months ago and said he accepts the criticism aimed at him as a result of this decision.

"Our greatest sin is that we agreed to form and preserve such a terrible coalition with Shinui, a party that holds such hatred for all that is sacred to Jews and with the Likud, which rose up to trample everything that is precious to us," said Eitam.

Extreme right-wing activists Itamar Ben-Gvir and Baruch Marzel arrived at the scene of the convention to protest the NRP's refusal to leave the coalition. "We have come to protest the NRP movement, Orlev and his friends choose their seat over their ideology. We hope that if the NRP central committee votes to stay in the government, there will be nothing left of the party and it will disappear from Israel's political scene," said Ben-Gvir.

Eitam, Orlev face off before NRP central committeeRelative moderates within the NRP have urged that the party set as its condition for remaining in the government a national plebiscite over the disengagment. Party leaders failed Sunday in efforts to reach a compromise in advance of the Central Committee session.

Hardliners led by Eitam proposed that the party quit the coalition the minute the cabinet approves the payment of advances to settlers due to be evacuated under the disengagement plan, which is expected to happen this week.

The party's other five MKs, headed by Orlev, proposed a list of "red lines" and state that if any one of them is crossed, the NRP will quit the government immediately. The list is headed by the demand that the disengagement be conditioned on a nationwide referendum.

One source involved in the talks said that were it not for the personal antagonism between Eitam and Orlev, an agreement could have been reached, as the distance between the sides is not great. He said that Eitam was close to conceding his insistence on quitting immediately, while the other five were willing to accept Eitam's proposals that the party insist that the referendum require a special majority to pass and set a date by which it will withdraw if the government has not yet decided on a referendum.

The Orlev proposal demands a special majority but does not set a specific deadline. Instead, it stipulates that the referendum be held before any Knesset vote on evacuating settlements.

MK Yitzhak Levy, who joined Eitam in quitting the cabinet yet sided with Orlev in yesterday's discussions, withdrew his support for the welfare minister's recommendations on Monday after consulting with the NRP's spiritual leader, former Sephardi chief rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu.

Levy told Haaretz that Eliyahu decreed that the NRP must quit the coalition immediately following authorization of compensation payments to settlers irrespective of the matter of a referendum on disengagement.

Levy initially supported Orlev's proposal, describing it as "a major achievement," because it contains "several red lines, one of which will certainly arrive by the end of the civil year, in November-December."

	Effi Eitam wants the NRP to quit Sharon's coalition government. (Archive)