By Yona Schnitzer
Israel’s general elections will be held on April 9th, seven months ahead of their scheduled date in November 2019, the Coalition party heads decided on Monday afternoon, after being unsuccessful in finding a compromise for the Draft Law which would appease all Coalition members.
On December 2nd, Israel’s High Court for Justice granted the government an additional 45 days to finalize an agreed upon version of the Draft Law after the original deadline expired. The new deadline set was January 15, 2019, by which time the Coalition parties must present a new version of the law to replace the previous one which the HCJ ruled to be unconstitutional as it stands against the principal of equality.
On Monday morning, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called a meeting of the Coalition party heads, at the end of which the disbandment of the Knesset was announced.
“Out of fiscal and national responsibility, the Coalition party heads have unanimously decided to disband the Knesset and go to elections in early April,” a joint statement of the Coalition heads read, adding that the government will continue to function throughout the election process.
If elections had been called for after July 16, 2019, then Netanyahu would have acquired the title of Israel’s longest serving prime minister, beating David Ben-Gurion. That’s no longer assured.
