With just hours remaining before the deadline to submit electoral slates to the Central Elections Committee, United Torah Judaism was thrown into turmoil as representatives of Shlomei Emunim and Belz moved to establish a separate political party while remaining within the joint UTJ list.

MK Meir Porush of Shlomei Emunim and Elyakim Stark, representing Belz, announced plans to run as part of UTJ through a newly established party that would be organizationally independent of Agudas Yisroel.

The new party, named Chomas Toras Yisroel, would fundamentally alter the structure of UTJ. Instead of consisting of the traditional partnership between Agudas Yisroel and Degel HaTorah, the joint list would now comprise three independently constituted political factions.

The development comes after years of complaints from Shlomei Emunim and Belz regarding their treatment within Agudas Yisroel. Representatives of the two groups have alleged that the Ger faction, commonly referred to as the Central Faction, has held up the transfer of funding intended for their operations and branches around the country.

Establishing Chomas Toras Yisroel as an independent party would enable the new faction to receive its monthly Knesset party funding directly. The allocations, amounting to hundreds of thousands of shekels, have until now been administered through the Ger-controlled party framework.

The battle, however, involves considerably more than control over funding.

Operating as a separate party would give Porush and his faction an independent political status within the broader UTJ framework. As a result, future coalition negotiations with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would require separate discussions with representatives of Chomas Toras Yisroel rather than having its interests represented exclusively through Agudas Yisroel.

Despite the timing of the announcement, the establishment of the new faction was reportedly not an eleventh-hour initiative. Preparations for the move are said to have been underway quietly for close to a year.

As part of those preparations, organizers obtained an already-existing dormant political party that could be used as the legal framework for the new faction. The plan was kept under tight secrecy until recent days, after which the party was renamed Chomas Toras Yisroel.

Degel HaTorah, the Litvishe component of UTJ, was reportedly made aware of the plan beforehand and assisted in keeping the initiative confidential while preparations proceeded.

The effort to formally establish the new arrangement, however, ran into strong resistance from representatives of Ger, who refused to give their approval to the proposed restructuring.

The disagreement ultimately caused the meeting to fall apart, with participants leaving the room without reaching an agreement. The breakdown left the future configuration of the entire United Torah Judaism slate unresolved, with tensions running high only hours before the deadline for submitting the list.