19th Knesset to return to session for first time since Passover break; new members in session only six weeks before break.
By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMANHeads of party lists for 19th Knesset 370(photo credit: Knesset spokesperson)
Knesset members will find themselves in an odd place that they are not used to going to on Monday: The Knesset.The eighteenth Knesset suspended itself for the election on October 15. The nineteenth was sworn in nearly four months later on February 5.The new Knesset was in session for less than six weeks, but the MKs' work was limited during that time, because committees had not been formed and an opposition leader had not formally been appointed.Now after a holiday break for Passover and Independence Day that lasted more than a month, the Knesset will be at full force starting Monday.Monday will be devoted to ceremonies at Knesset committees in which new chairpersons take over from their predecessors. The Knesset will be asked to approve the appointment of Ronen Plot as its new director-general. Plot, who replaces Dan Landau, was the director-general of the Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Ministry and the Immigrant Absorption Ministry when they were headed by new Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein.There will also be seven no-confidence motions presented by the eight opposition factions. The only motion presented by two factions together is from Shas and United Torah Judaism. While all the motions presented by individual parties propose that their party leader become prime minister, the Shas-UTJ proposal recommends UTJ leader Ya'acov Litzman, not an MK from Shas, which is led by a triumvirate of leaders who do not get along.Most of the no-co-confidence motions are on economic issues. The motions presented by the Arab factions protest more generally that the new government is "dangerous."Edelstein vowed to crack down on gimmicks by MKs that harm the Knesset's image. He said he would have no tolerance for MKs who disturb Knesset proceedings.The Knesset will disperse for another break in August for summer vacation and the fall Jewish holidays.
