The Knesset plenum will be the only place in Israel where more than 10 unrelated people will be allowed to be present, Knesset Speaker Benny Gantz announced Tuesday.
Up to 18 MKs will be able to be in the Knesset plenum at any given time, he decided together with Knesset officials and his deputies.
The Health Ministry already had said the Knesset could be an exception to the rule.
“My goal is to enable the Knesset to function as well as possible under the circumstances,” Gantz said.
The new rules will take effect on Wednesday.
Gantz reversed a decision by his predecessor, Yuli Edelstein, who limited the plenum to as few as four MKs during their swearing-in ceremony and for the vote that replaced him. The decision angered Blue and White MKs, who thought Edelstein was trying to use coronavirus limitations to his political advantage.
Knesset committees will continue to be limited and meet in two separate rooms in which MKs see their colleagues in the other room via video hookup. MKs were told to continue to remain two meters apart from each other.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s parliamentary adviser, Rivka Paluch, contracted the virus after visiting the Knesset three times.Sources close to Netanyahu responded by accusing Sa'ar of "sabotaging Netanyahu's efforts to form a government after he lost to him in the primary."