The Knesset House Committee, chaired by MK Eitan Ginzburg (Blue&White), ruled on Monday that it will be in charge of debating two separate bills for the dispersal of the 23rd Knesset and holding early elections. The bills, sponsored by opposition leader MK Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid-Telem), MK Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz), and a group of other lawmakers, passed their preliminary readings in the Knesset plenum last week.
It appeared on Monday that Blue&White had the majority needed to win the vote on holding the debate on the law to dissolve the Knesset in the Knesset committee. And, indeed, the decision to hold the deliberations on the bill in the House Committee passed by a vote of 10-0, with one abstention. Committee members from Likud, Shas, and United Torah Judaism did not take part in the vote. The win will allow Blue&White to control the schedules of passing the dispersal law.
Coalition Chairman MK Miki Zohar (Likud) said, “You, MK Eitan Ginzburg of Blue&White, are the head of the committee, and you will be dispersing the Knesset with your own hands.”
Committee Chairman MK Ginzburg said in response: “And this is being said by the person who submitted a bill for the Knesset’s dispersal 40 days after it had been established.”
To which MK Zohar replied: “It’s not too late. You can still change your attitude. This is an unnecessary election campaign, in the midst of the corona crisis. Elections at this time would endanger the health of the citizens of Israel. You are endangering the health of the citizens of Israel only to hurt Netanyahu.”
To which MK Ginzburg responded: “Blue&White does not have to prove anything. We worked to implement the [coalition] agreement and pass a budget, while you are acting out of political and personal motives. You want to push the elections to July.”
MK Elazar Stern (Yesh Atid-Telem) said: “We knew it wouldn’t work. I wish the elections were not inevitable, as they are now. Even a bloated government of 36 ministers cannot manage the corona crisis properly. This culture of not respecting agreements and lying is already seeping into the public.”
MK Osnat Hila Mark (Likud) said: “We understand that Blue&White entered the coalition only to exercise the rotation clause. You ran away from votes. You sent us messages telling us that Likud will manage on its own. You entered this agreement without integrity. You are plunging the country into an abyss.”
MK Matan Kahana (Yamina) who will support the committee’s proposal to disperse the House, said during the discussion: “Mickey Zohar gave a small-politics speech here and tried to explain why it is worthwhile or not to go to new elections because of polls. Shame and disgrace, nothing of substance.”
“The grave danger is that this government will continue, a quarrelsome government that engages in cynical things and does not pass a budget, while they constantly hide things from each other. The Likud cynically exploits the budget to disperse the government, which is leading us in huge steps to a third lockdown,” Kahana said.