The Knesset plenum on Tuesday morning approved the “Deri-Smotrich law” this morning in a second and third reading, by a 63 to 55 vote.
Israel’s High Court of Justice issued a conditional injunction ordering the state to argue why the “Deri law” is not invalid and why Deri’s appointment as minister in the next government, despite his recent conviction for tax evasion and his probational sentence, is reasonable.
However, the court did not issue an interim order preventing the convening of the Knesset plenum for the swearing-in of the new Netanyahu government, although it made it clear that the respondents to the injunction are well aware of the existence of petitions against them.
Meanwhile, the President of the Supreme Court Justice Esther Hayut scheduled the hearing of the petitions against Deri’s appointment for next week, before an expanded panel of 11 judges. The panel will not include justices who have been appointed under the Lapid-Bennett government.
The Knesset plenum on Tuesday morning approved the “Deri-Smotrich law” this morning in a second and third reading, by a 63 to 55 vote. The law allows Shas Chairman MK Aryeh Deri to be appointed minister in the incoming government even though he was given a suspended sentence for tax evasion only a few months ago.
The new law also allows Religious Zionism Chairman MK Bezalel Smotrich to serve as an adjunct minister in the Defense Ministry, in charge of the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria.
Departing Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar (National Camp) said on behalf of the soon-to-be-opposition that “This law is a bad law, a bad law that was extorted from the prime minister and damages for personal reasons the value of the purity of the public service. I ask the Knesset plenum to vote against it.”
Later on Tuesday, the plenum will debate the proposed “Ben Gvir law” granting extensive powers to the designated Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir.
If all goes well and the Ben Gvir law is passed, on Thursday morning, Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to present his new government to the Knesset.
The temporary Knesset Speaker, MK Yariv Levin, resigned his post ahead of the swearing-in and is expected to be appointed Justice Minister.
To facilitate the passing of the Ben Gvir law and prevent a filibuster that would mess with the scheduled swearing-in on Thursday, the incoming coalition activated clause 98 of the Knesset rules that limits debate on the bill to 16 hours. The debate will start at 4 PM Tuesday and the bill should become law sometime Wednesday morning.
MK Shlomo Karhi (Likud) projected the next war on the new government’s horizon when he told Reshet Bet radio Tuesday morning: “If the High Court rejects the Deri-Smotrich law, it will seriously damage our democracy. The court has no authority to invalidate ordinary laws, much more so cancel basic laws.”
But the court may rule that it does have the authority to do just that, at which point the new ruling coalition would have to hastily pass an override law enabling the Knesset to ignore a Supreme Court ruling by either a simple or special majority. The same law would also require the court to revoke a given law only with a substantial majority of the justices.
