ABSTRACT
F r o m the Yishuv (the pre-state Jewish settlem ent in Palestine) pe riod until the 1980s, relations between religion and politics in Israel were based on consociational accommodation. Indeed, D an Horowitz and M oshe Lissak1 contend that all o f Yishuv politics need to be under stood in consociational term s. In their follow-up study o f the statehood period, they claim that many o f these consociational practices were abandoned when Israel becam e a sovereign state. Nevertheless, they insist that religion and politics are a striking exception to the rule: they continue to be governed by consociational forms o f decision making.*12
These consociational patterns account for the virtual monopoly o f the Orthodox cam p over religious life and the effective control that the religious parties exercise over many critical aspects o f Israel’s religiopolitical life. This control is m anifest inter alia in the official status and personal composition o f various religious institutions (such as the C h ief Rabbinate and the local religious councils), the exclusively religious regulation o f all m atters relating to marriage and divorce, as well as in the autonomy o f the religious community in the educational domain.
