Likud’s speaker refuses to move
ISRAEL’S POLITICAL deadlock ballooned this week into a fullblown constitutional crisis after the outgoing Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein defied a High Court ruling that he hold a vote on his replacement.
Mr Edelstein instead chose to resign on Wednesday morning, claiming he was a “true democrat” and that the court was “undermining the foundations of democracy” by trying to impose parliamentary procedure.
The High Court’s ruling — that the speaker holds the vote by Wednesday — was issued by the five senior justices of the Supreme Court. It was in response to a petition from opposition MKs, who control a majority in the Knesset after the Knesset election at the beginning of this month.
Despite having received the signatures of 61 Knesset members last week calling for a vote on a new speaker, Mr Edelstein had refused to allow one, arguing that Israeli law stipulates a vote can be held only after a new government is sworn in.
He added he had not permitted the vote because there were talks ongoing between Likud and Blue & White over the possibility of forming a national unity government, and an opposition speaker would harm these talks. Last Saturday night Mr Netanyahu attempted to reinforce that argument, saying an opposition Knesset speaker would be “unthinkable” and prevent any chance of agreement over a national unity government.
Benny Gantz, leader of the Blue & White opposition alliance, initially suggested he favoured such a government but added: “whoever wants unity doesn’t work with ultimatums and targeted leaks.”
A new speaker would also mean Benjamin Netanyahu’s government losing control of parliamentary business. At least one senior Likud minister had called on the speaker to defy the High Court when its ruling came on Monday.
Israel’s most senior judges sat on Sunday to hear the opposition petitions for Mr Edelstein to hold the vote immediately. They also heard the opinion of the Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit, who contradicted the speaker and said the vote should be held without delay.
It prompted Justice Minister Amir Ohana to tweet: “if I was the Knesset Speaker I would answer ‘no’”. Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, described in many circles as the prime minister’s political “enforcer”, added on Facebook: “the court has officially taken over the Knesset and from today turned the Knesset speaker into a rubber stamp. If the [Supreme Court] president [Esther] Hayut wants to put herself above the Knesset, she is invited to come to the building with the court’s guards and open the session herself.”
Mr Ohana is already on the record as having said last June that there are cases in which High Court rulings do not need to be followed. On that occasion Mr Netanyahu contradicted him, saying “the court’s decisions oblige all of us.”
Mr Edelstein was elected speaker by the Knesset last April and there have been two elections since then, but procedurally the outgoing speaker remains in charge until a new one is chosen.
Under Knesset procedure his resignation on Wednesday morning would not take effect for 48 hours, meaning that any attempt to elect his successor or pass new laws could not take place until next week.
But Mr Mendelblit said Mr Edelstein’s resignation “does not allow him to refrain from complying with the ruling” and President Reuven Rivlin criticised the speaker’s conduct in a primetime television address on Wednesday night.
“We are witnessing a severe clash between the judicial authoritiy and the legislative authority,” Mr Rivlin said. “But I know that the vast majority of the Israeli leadership knows court orders must be obeyed, and that it is unthinkable to defy it.”
As the JC went to press on Wednesday night Israel’s most senior judges were deliberating on how to respond to Mr Edelstein’s refusal to enact their ruling. There was speculation that he would be removed from his position and replaced by Amir Peretz, the longest-serving MK, as a temporary speaker.
Court orders must be obeyed. It is unthinkable to defy it’