Shas Party leader Minister Eli Yishai on Thursday announced the government must increase the monthly child allowance payment or face a coalition crisis.

A statement released by the Shas Party stated that the issue of negotiations on the future of Yerushalayim and other matters are being monitored and discussed but the issue of the monthly payments to families is a non-starter, and failure to increase the payments by NIS several hundred monthly will indeed result in a coalition crisis.

Yishai signaled the move must be immediate, realizing after Pesach, the price of such essentials as bread and electricity are going up, a reality that will place an increased strain on large middle class and lower income families.

Yishai added that the matter of the monthly child allowance payments is a directive which comes from the party’s spiritual leader, Rav Ovadia Yosef Shlita, and it is not subject to negotiations.

Yishai’s Colleagues Beg to Differ

Members of the Knesset’s Shas Party faction told reporters on Friday morning they are not in agreement with party leader Eli Yishai, who on Thursday announced if the government is not immediately forthcoming with an increase in monthly child allowance payments, the result will be a coalition crisis.

In a strange sequence of events, colleagues of Yishai stated the issue of the monthly child allowance is indeed one of paramount importance but party spiritual leader HaRav Ovadia Yosef Shlita has not instructed Shas to break away from the coalition over it as Yishai is indicating.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)