Knesset Finance Committee head Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) has announced that he will advance a bill this week designed to overturn Thursday’s ruling by the High Court of Justice that requires religious councils to allow people undergoing Reform or Conservative conversion to use public mikvehs, Jewish ritual baths, as part of their conversion process.

The proposed legislation will require that mikvehs be run only in accordance with the directives of the Chief Rabbinate, which is ultra-Orthodox. The High Court ruling is a violation of the status quo on religion and state, Gafni said, and the coalition agreement that brought his United Torah Judaism party into the current government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requires the maintenance of the status quo, the UTJ Knesset member asserted.