Joint List MKs to be sworn in today after protest
Bills submitted by Likud, Religious Zionist Party to take alternate PM post from Gantz
Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin will permit the swearing in of Joint List Party MKs on Monday, after punishing them for using last Tuesday’s swearing-in ceremony of the Knesset to make statements attacking Israel.
Four Joint List MKs, starting with Balad Party head Sami Abou Shahadeh, used their turn to swear allegiance to the state instead to express their commitment to fighting what they termed Israel’s racism, occupation and apartheid.
Levin immediately told them their swearing in would not count because they did not use the proper wording. Knesset legal adviser Sharon Afek ruled that Levin had legal grounds to deprive the four MKs of financial and parliamentary benefits due to them as MKs.
While the Joint List MKs later asked Levin to be sworn in again that night, he took his time in approving the request and was accused of unfairly using his post to make his own statement against them.
But sources close to Levin said the alleged police brutality against Joint List MK Ofer Cassif and the positive media coverage he received afterward persuaded him that he could not hold back from allowing Cassif and his colleagues to be sworn in on Monday.
The first bills submitted by the new Knesset included legislation sponsored by Likud and Religious Zionist Party MKs that seeks to cancel the Alternate Prime Minister Law that could bring Blue and White leader Benny Gantz to power in November. The law says Gantz and Netanyahu would switch roles on November 17 unless a different government is sworn in before that date.
“We are currently in a political stalemate that no one knows how long will last,” said MK Simcha Rotman (Religious Zionist Party), who submitted one of the bills. “Israeli citizens cannot be taken hostage by the quarrels of the party leaders. The bill that I am bringing forward to abolish the ‘rotation government’ would make sure that the government can handle its affairs even during the political transition period.”
Citing the fight between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Gantz that has stymied key government decisions, Rotman said: “Vaccinations, appointments of cabinet members and economic plans to solve the issue of unemployment should not wait on the sidelines while political chaos rules.”
In response, Gantz said it was Netanyahu and not himself who was trying to initiate the fifth election in just over two years and must be replaced.
“We cannot remain hostages of Netanyahu’s trial,” he told Blue and White activists at a rally over the weekend. “We must embark on a new path. That is the obligation of every party in the bloc that wants change.”