The coalition on Monday morning decided to freeze the Deri 2 bill, which overrides the High Court of Justice’s disqualification of Shas leader MK Aryeh Deri to serve as a government minister. According to News 12, the move came at Deri’s request, after the Knesset’s Special Committee for Basic Law Amendments approved the bill, which was supposed to go up for a second and third reading in the plenary during Monday’s session.
MK Deri did not participate in the meeting with the heads of the coalition parties that was convened by Prime Minister Netanyahu. Overnight, Israeli mainstream media announced that the Shas chairman was advocating freezing the judicial reform altogether.
The Religious Zionism party on Monday morning issued a fierce objection to the attempts from the left and from within the coalition to stop the judicial reform. “Stopping the legislation would be surrendering to violence, anarchy, insubordination, and the tyranny of the minority,” the party stated. “We were elected legally and received a clear mandate from the people to restore balance to Israeli democracy. We owe it to the majority of the people to make their voice heard and to continue this important historical correction.”
Meanwhile, on Monday morning, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant came to a special debate at the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, chaired by anti-Netanyahu Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, on “the impact of social tensions in the State of Israel on the security system.”
MK Simcha Rothman’s Constitution Committee also gathered for the final votes on the bill to change the composition of the committee to elect judges. A riot broke out at the committee meeting and several MKs, most notably Labor’s Gilad Kariv, were removed, but in the end, were brought back to vote and lose as the bill was approved for a second and third reading at the plenum.
And now all eyes are trained on the plenum podium, where Prime Minister Netanyahu is expected to quash the judicial reform at 10:30 AM, a move that could lead to the disintegration of his coalition government and new elections.
