MK Vladimir Beliak of the Together party, the opposition’s coordinator on the committee, spoke with Anat Davidov on 103FM’s Where's the Money program and addressed the budget additions being sought.
The hearing was the first since the indictment was amended last month to add senior Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu adviser Yonatan Urich as a defendant.
“The chief of staff should be the number one soldier and nothing else,” Shekalim said. “He is not supposed to be a lawmaker, and he is not supposed to set policy."
Former adviser to the prime minister, Aviv Bushinsky, said Netanyahu would try to preserve a political deadlock and keep the change bloc from reaching 61 seats.
The haredi-backed Basic Law passed its final Knesset votes after weeks of coalition tensions and warnings that it could encourage draft evasion.
Democrats Party leader Yair Golan said that “the 25th Knesset will be remembered as the most extreme, divisive, and destructive Knesset in the history of the State of Israel.”
The proposed bill “is a direct danger to the health of the citizens of Israel,” the deans wrote in a public letter shared on Monday.
The legal dispute comes as Likud leaders remain deadlocked over the party's primary rules despite days of negotiations involving Netanyahu, Katz, Bitan and other senior party figures.
Netanyahu reportedly has held several meetings with Katz ahead of the vote, seeking to bridge disagreements over the primary system.
Election season in Israel has officially begun, and the 25th Knesset will become the first time since 1988 that elections have been held after a full four-year term.
He is suspected of using funds from the Ma'ayan HaChinuch HaTorani education network to finance a private Shas-affiliated newspaper while serving as the network’s director-general seven years ago.
