Opposition pulls 1,000 amendments in marathon Knesset session
“We are finally ending the political dead end,” said Blue and White MK Eitan Ginzburg.
By GIL HOFFMANKnesset meeting to pass bills to create coalition government on May 6, 2020(photo credit: ADINA WALLMAN)
The Knesset plenum had been set to vote all night on the bills required to enable the formation of a new government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz.But the opposition withdrew its 1,000 amendments in an effort to embarrass the coalition that was not ready to vote on the final version of the bills. Netanyahu and Gantz had been slated to meet for a second time Wednesday night to finalize them, but the opposition's maneuver complicated their efforts.Instead, the special Knesset committee formed to legislate the bills was set to meet overnight before the bill is returned to the plenum.When the bill comes to its final votes, it may be changed to have the term Netanyahu and Gantz serve total four or four and a half years instead of three.The head of the Knesset committee that legislated the bills, Blue and White MK Eitan Ginzburg, told the plenum the opposition should be ashamed for wasting the Knesset’s time.“We are finally ending the political dead end,” he said while introducing the bills.Once the bills pass, Blue and White will join 52 MKs in Netanyahu’s Right-Center bloc recommending him to form a government. President Reuven Rivlin is expected to give him a two-week mandate to do so.If the signatures of 61 MKs supporting Netanyahu are not submitted by Thursday night, Israel would automatically go to an election in August. An election would also take place if Netanyahu does not complete the formation of a government within two weeks after Rivlin gives him the mandate.Ahead of the votes, the opposition took turns bashing the soon-to-be-formed coalition in hours of speeches in the plenum.“The only driving force behind this deal is the division of the spoils,” said presumptive opposition leader Yair Lapid. “You’re attacking Israel’s democracy. You’re taking apart our shared values. You’re creating a total loss of public trust in politics. You’re wasting hundreds of millions of shekels on jobs and perks.”
Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman tried to embarrass the prime minister by reading aloud from a Netanyahu speech in 2012 in which he praised the Supreme Court and vowed to prevent it from being harmed. He asked which Netanyahu should be believed.Meretz chairman Nitzan Horowitz said: “Israel will end the coronavirus crisis and then have to deal with a worse plague: annexation, which will bring bloodshed.”Joint List head Ayman Odeh said hundreds of thousands of Jews and Arabs should take to the streets together to protest against the government.
