Cabinet Secretary Ovad Yehezkel rejected a request from Shas Friday to hold a vote in Sunday's cabinet meeting on a bill that would outlaw selling hametz (leavened product) during Passover. Shas had hoped to pass the bill in the cabinet on Sunday, and then in the Knesset on Monday, in time for the Passover holiday.
Cabinet secretary Ovad Yehezkel.
Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski
This will mean that the matter will not be settled in time for Pessah.
Yehezkel said he turned down the request because it wasn't presented on time, but Shas officials accused Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of giving in to dictates from Labor.
The storm of activity about the hametz law began last Thursday, when a Jerusalem court ruled that stores and eateries could sell hametz over Pessah.
Since then, the signatures of 40 MKs from Shas, United Torah Judaism, Likud and the National Union/National Religious Party were collected to call the Knesset into session in a last-ditch attempt to keep Jerusalem storefronts hametz-free over the holiday.
Rebecca Anna Stoil contributed to this report
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