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The official ultra-Orthodox line is that it is forbidden to take part in the secular Zionists’ regime and serve in a government that does not observe Torah law.
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The election results changed the power balance, swinging it to the right for the first time in its history. Danny Atar, the Labor Party stalwart that headed JNF until the election, was replaced by Avraham Duvdevani, formerly of the National Religious Party and secretary of the religious Zionist Bnei Akiva youth movement.
Another new board member is the director-general of the Bnei Brak local authority, Shmuel Litov, who represents an American ultra-Orthodox faction. Shlomo Dery, brother of the leader of the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox party Shas, Interior Minister Arye Dery, was also appointed associate chairman, a post that is unsalaried but receives clerical support from the JNF.