Opposition Chairman Herzog
Photo: Yitzhak Harari, Knesset Spokesperson's Office
Herzog demands Knesset speaker, legal advisor decry boycott of opposition bills
Opposition Chairman Herzog contacts Knesset Speaker Edelstein and parliament's legal advisor Yinon, demands they put an end to the Ministerial Committee for Legislation's boycott of privately sponsored opposition bills; boycott in contravention of basic tenets of parliamentary democracy, Herzog claims.
Opposition Chairman MK Isaac Herzog contacted Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein and parliament's legal advisor Eyal Yinon on Monday, demanding they force the Ministerial Committee for Legislation to put an end to its boycott of opposition bills.
The boycott was started by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, Tourism Minister Yariv Levin and Coalition Chairman David Amsalem as a punitive measure for the opposition's filibustering of the Recommendations Law—which bars police from making public recommendations on indictments—and the Litzman bill—intended to pave the way for former health minister Yaakov Litzman to return to the Health Ministry as a deputy minister with minister's powers.
Herzog wrote Knesset Speaker Edelstein and legal advisor Yinon to demand they force the committee to resume discussion on opposition bills (Photo: Yoav Dudkevitch)
"Several weeks ago, Levin, Shaked and Amsalem announced that in light of the opposition's insistence on using the (legitimate) tools at its disposal during votes on the recommendations and Litzman bills, the government—through the Ministerial Committee for Legislation—will no longer be discussing privately sponsored bills by opposition MKs," Herzog wrote to Edelstein and Yinon.
"It was, in fact," Herzog elucidated, "a declaration of a boycott on the opposition."
"The government's blatant boycott has been ongoing for several weeks now. The Ministerial Committee for Legislation—headed by Justice Minister Shaked and her stand-in Minister Levin—continues refusing to allow topical, relevant discussion of opposition bills, all with the supervision and support of the coalition chair," Herzog further maintained.
Herzog noted that Opposition Coordinator MK Yoel Hasson tried speaking with the heads of the coalition to convince them to end the ban, but his efforts have thus far proven unsuccessful.
The boycott on opposition bills was initiated by Tourism Minister Levin (L) and Justice Minister Shaked (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky, Yair Sagi)
Herzog concluded his missive with an explicit demand to halt the boycott. "I'm contacting you," Herzog addressed Edelstein and Yinon, "demanding to put an end to this outrage. This is a deep, serious wound to the beating heart of parliamentary democracy, which causes unprecedented damage to the Knesset's standing," he said.
"Even more grievously," he added, "it's in blatant disregard of the axioms of Israel's parliamentary constitution, and of course also of the Knesset's regulations vis-à-vis the government's expected treatment of such privately sponsored bills."
