Knesset Legal Adviser Sagit Afik ruled today (Wednesday) that Knesset Speaker Miki Levy acted without authority when he earlier this month ordered security guards to evacuate MK Simcha Rotman from the “horseshoe” behind the Knesset plenum. “The powers of the Knesset Speaker “To maintain order and security in the Mishkan, they do not apply to Knesset members in light of their exception to the law,” she wrote.
As you may recall, following the arrest of five students, a loud confrontation developed between Knesset Speaker Miki Levy and MKs Simcha Rotman and Orit Struck from Religious Zionism. Levy ordered them taken out, and Rothman called out to him, “Crazy, you will not threaten me. You have lost your mind.”
In addition, the attorney general wrote in an official letter on her behalf describing the sequence of events that the difficult exchange between the Speaker of the Knesset and me began only after the Speaker of the Knesset ordered my forced departure from the horseshoe through unauthorized security guards.
MK Simcha Rotman said: “In other words, the attorney general said clearly today: the Speaker of the Knesset cannot use the Knesset’s order as his private militia, as MK Miki Levy mistakenly thought. I thank the Attorney General for the important clarification and hope that this will prevent similar cases of violence against Knesset members inside the Mishkan. “
“I regret that due to the coalition’s power to divide seats in the Knesset committees, the establishment of the Ethics Committee is prevented, so I can not file a complaint against the Knesset Speaker for his conduct in the event, in a way that harmed the Knesset and its members,” Rotman added.