BREAKING NEWS

Controversial Norwegian Law advances in plenum

Zandberg: Bill will result in South African law of Apartheid.

JUNE 1, 2020 23:50

The Knesset plenum voted 64-38 on Monday night to advance the Expanded Norwegian Law, putting it on pace to pass into law by next week.

The bill would enable five ministers in Blue and White and two in other coalition parties to quit the Knesset and be replaced by the next candidates on each party’s list. If the ministers quit the cabinet, they could return to the Knesset at the expense of the new MKs.

It would give new MKs in factions that have split 24 hours to decide which one to join. The legislation could allow candidates of Yesh Atid and Telem, which are in the opposition, to instead join Blue and White in the coalition, solving the problem of Blue and White not having enough MKs who are not ministers to do the party’s legislative work in the Knesset.

It passed after a stormy debate in which opposition MKs fiercely criticized the bill.

Meretz faction chair Tamar Zandberg alleged that there was a deal of "Norwegian Law for South African Law," in which more Blue and White MKs would enter the Knesset but they had to support Likud policies of applying Israeli law to territories in the West Bank.

"They will pass the Norwegian Law but wake up with Apartheid," she warned.

During the debate, Joint List leader Ayman Odeh had to be removed from the plenum rostrum after his time ran out in a speech about Eyad Hallaq, an unarmed Palestinian shot and killed by police on Saturday in the Old City of Jerusalem. Odeh called Public Security Minister Amir Ohana a coward and said police had murdered Hallaq.