Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman blasted Shas chairman Aryeh Deri during Shabbat.
"The Interior Ministry must not remain in the hands of Shas. I look at what has gone on in the Ministry of the Interior in the past year, these are unprecedented things. I am no longer talking about that decision to close supermarkets on Shabbat, where they transferred powers to the Interior Minister, who quickly rushed to close the supermarkets,” said Liberman.
"No one opened supermarkets on Shabbat just to anger the haredim. In Ashdod, for example, these are supermarkets that have been open for 20 years and are located in areas that are far from residential neighborhoods. I would be the first to object to opening supermarkets on Shabbat in Bnei Brak, but to close supermarkets in Ashdod, Eilat and Rosh Pina is madness. The fact that they took the powers from the local government and transferred them to the Interior Minister was inconceivable, he continued.
"The second thing that infuriates me," Liberman added, "is that people who make Aliyah to the State of Israel undergo a very unpleasant examination in order to prove their Jewishness. After the Jewish Agency and Nativ conduct tests, they immigrate to the State of Israel. Here suddenly they start to re-check. They even have to undergo DNA tests to prove their Jewishness."
“This is total madness. In addition, in eastern Jerusalem, the Interior Ministry has decided to shorten the process of obtaining citizenship for Palestinians from six years to one year. These two processes, together with the closing of supermarkets on Shabbat, lead to the conclusion that the Interior Ministry should not remain in the hands of Shas,” said the Yisrael Beytenu chairman.
MK Yinon Azoulay (Shas) responded to Liberman's remarks after Shabbat, saying, "Mr. Liberman has never completed a full term in office in a position in which he has served - Liberman sees the polls and that causes him to completely lose his mind. Minister Deri will continue to carry out revolutions in his role as Interior Minister for the benefit of a Jewish and traditional State of Israel."