Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy said on Wednesday evening that he was unilaterally setting up a parliamentary ethics committee by ordering two opposition MPs to sit on the panel, even though several opposition parties are engaged in boycotting parliamentary forums, which he says that it is this balance of power in them that is unfair to the opposition.
Levy said in a statement that he was forced to order lawmakers to be members of the committee to remove the boycott and deal with the “unprecedented ambiguous”. [political] An environment that makes it impossible to wait any longer – and requires immediate action.”
He pointed to a “clear increase” in the tone of discourse among lawmakers as his motivation for the move.
The committee consists of two MLAs from the coalition and two MLAs from the opposition. It handles all matters relating to ethical behavior of MKs and complaints against him.
Levy appointed Yes Atid’s coalition MK Yorai Lahav-Hertzano to chair the committee. New Hope MK Zvi Hauser, also of the Coalition, was elected along with opposition MPs Gila Gamliel (Likud) and Yaakov Margi (Shas).
Joint-list opposition MK Osama Saadi and Coalition Party’s Sharon Rofe Ofir were appointed to the Israel Beytenu Party as members of the Alternative Committee.
While the Likud party recently reiterated the intention to continue the boycott To counter the opposition’s claim that Knesset committees have an under-representation of their MPs, Shas nominated some of his MKs to certain panels.
Gila Gamaliel, the then Minister of Environmental Protection, at the ‘Besheva’ group’s annual Jerusalem conference in Jerusalem on March 15, 2021. (Yontan Sindel/Flash90)
If Gamaliel and Margie do not attend the meetings, they will be replaced by backup members, but if this happens multiple times, the committee may issue sanctions against absent MK. However, both the MLAs can also resign from the committee. Levy will have the authority to issue orders for other MKs to join the committee.
Levy said that following the passage of the national budget earlier this month, a move that bolstered the governing coalition and averted the threat of an early election, he wrote to opposition leaders and named party members at meetings. Asked to serve on the ethics committee.
“To my apologies, I was faced with a stubborn and incomprehensible denial that left me no other choice,” he said in the statement.
According to a recording broadcast by the Cannes public broadcaster earlier this month, at least two Likud MPs have recently expressed their opposition to the founding of the Ethics Committee, claiming it was intended to harass party members. will focus on.
“After all, they will only lead us to morality [Committee], You understand? Why are we the only ones who are the culprits in the Knesset?” MK Orly Levi-Abaeksis can be heard saying at a meeting of the Likud faction.
MK Katie Schitritt replied that she “obviously” agreed with Levi-Abaeksis.
“I was sitting on the ethics committee. I want to tell you, they only bring complaints against us,” said Shitrit.
“They’ll only judge us. Let there be no ethics committee,” replied Levi-Abaeksis.
The remarks come after Levi-Abaeksis faced investigation for instigating a female usher after she was expelled from a Knesset finance committee meeting last week.
Shas MK Yaakov Margie in the Knesset on August 5, 2019. (Jonatan Sindel/Flash90)
There is an ongoing dispute about the composition of the Knesset committees, with initially all opposition parties participating in the boycott, alleging that their proportion was low.
Last month, some parties abandoned the boycott and began sending MPs to key panels of staff, after the High Court refused to intervene in the parliamentary dispute and forced the coalition to change the makeup of the committees. The court ruled that the case did not justify judicial intervention.
