Charedi Knesset Members Slam Netanyahu For Releasing Statement on Shabbos

ISRAEL (VINnews) Charedi Knesset leaders slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after he released a statement on Shabbos, responding to Moody’s downgrading Israel’s credit.

“The Prime Minister’s statement on Shabbat regarding the credit rating was out of place,” said Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, leader of UTJ and chair of its Agudat Yisrael faction, adding, “This is not a case of Pikuach Nefesh, nor an emergency issue, nor a response that could not have been published at the conclusion of Shabbat.”

Moshe Gafni, chair of Degel Hatorah, the other faction within UTJ, also criticized Netanyahu, saying, “I don’t understand why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needed to put out a statement on Shabbat. What was the need? It was totally unnecessary.”

MK Yisrael Eichler of UTJ called it a “disgrace and humiliation for the country.”

It is unusual for officials to publicly engage in non-emergency government business on Shabbos.

On Friday, the Moody’s ratings agency downgraded Israel’s credit, lowering it by one notch from A1 to A2.

It also lowered its outlook for Israel’s debt to “negative” due to “the risk of an escalation” with Hezbollah on Israel’s northern border.

In a separate statement after Shabbos, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich denounced the Moody’s rating as an “entirely a political manifesto based on a pessimistic and unfounded geopolitical worldview, which reflects a lack of confidence in Israel’s security and national resilience, as well as an apparent lack of confidence in the righteousness of its path in the face of enemies.”