Haredi MK Israel Eichler (Torah Judaism) announced his solidarity with the Arab parties: “I want the world to know that we have here a government that fights its own citizens,” he declared—in Arabic! “This is how the government is becoming anti-Jewish and anti-democratic. This constitutes the Exclusion of the Arab and Haredi minorities.”
One Yesh Atid MK, Adi Kol, had to apologize publicly for abstaining during the threshold vote, and then her boss, Yair Lapid, still took away her committee assignments. Another Yesh Atid member, Education Minister Shai Piron, stood silent for one minute in solidarity with the opposition – and then voted to eliminate them from future elections.
Additional “goodies” in the Governance Act included limiting the number of government ministers to 19 (20 with the PM, get it?), only 4 deputy ministers, and no “ministers without portfolio” whatsoever. Also, the new bill kills the “Mofaz Law” which says any 7 MKs can leave their faction if their number constitutes less than one third of the members.
Last night, the “only democracy in the Middle East” became a lot less democracy and a lot more Middle East.