Winter Session of Knesset Focused on Preserving Coalition through Numerous Legislation

by time news

During a stormy winter session, the Israeli Knesset worked hard on legal reform, which is now on hold. Most of the legislation seemed to focus on maintaining the coalition’s integrity and repelling legal and political threats to it. Some of the bills included correcting the balance in the Committee for the Selection of Judges, passing the Quarantine Law, limiting the High Court’s judicial review, and promoting the gift law. The Knesset also changed various ministry names to include “Leumi” and passed other laws including the revocation of citizenship and deportation of terrorists, the cancellation of the secession law, and the Hametz law.

The session was not without difficulties, and many complaints were filed with the Knesset Ethics Committee regarding the often tense discourse between members. The hope for the next session is that the Knesset will focus on easing the cost of living in the Emirate for all citizens of Israel.

The Knesset is currently on a Passover break, and when they reconvene on April 17th, they will discuss rewards and allowances based on changes in the cost of living. Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana has gone on a visit to India, and a large-scale Knesset appointment event is planned at his invitation.

It was a particularly stormy winter session, most of which was marked by the legal reform – which has meanwhile been frozen. Three months, hours upon hours, even on unusual days, such as plenary sessions on Sundays and Thursdays allocated for the purpose of enacting the articles of the reform.

Throughout the session, the feeling was that most of the legislation concerned the need to preserve the integrity of the coalition and the repulsion of legal and political attempts to undermine it. Alongside laws such as correcting the balance in the Committee for the Selection of Judges, the Knesset passed the Quarantine Law, which prevents a Prime Minister from being placed in quarantine other than for medical or mental reasons. In addition, the issue of limiting the High Court’s judicial review of the appointment of ministers was promoted, following the High Court’s decision not to allow Shas MK Aryeh Deri to serve as Minister of the Interior and Health in the right-wing government, after his conviction in the tax crimes case.

Netanyahu and his coalition members celebrate the approval of the Judiciary Basic Law (Photo: Yonatan Zindel, Flash 90)

Netanyahu and his coalition members celebrate the approval of the Judiciary Basic Law (Photo: Yonatan Zindel, Flash 90)

In addition, the coalition vigorously promoted the gift law, after the High Court ruling against the financial assistance for the legal representation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by his cousin, who has already passed away. Without such a law, Netanyahu will be forced to return the money given to him for this purpose to Malikovski’s heirs. On the other hand, the coalition dropped the bill for electronic shackles for violent men.

Additional laws dealt with changing the names of ministries, with an emphasis on the name Leumi in them. The Ministry of National Security, the Ministry of National Missions and much more. Additional legislation allowed the appointment of another minister within a ministry, when only in the last few days we saw Dodi Amsalem appointed as a minister in the Ministry of Justice.

Other laws that passed: the law of revocation of citizenship and deportation of terrorists passed in the third reading in the plenary, as well as the cancellation of the law of secession, so that staying in the territories of northern Samaria that were evacuated in the secession plan will be legal. The Hametz law was also passed and entered the statute book before Passover, as planned by the coalition. Also, the state budget for the years 2023 and 2024 was also approved in the first reading.

And we must also not forget that many hours of plenary sessions, along with hard work, created quite a bit of work for the Knesset’s ethics committee, which discussed complaints about the difficult and emotional discourse between Knesset members. The hope now is that in the next session the members of the Knesset from the coalition and the opposition will deal with laws to ease the cost of living in the Emirate, and will help all citizens of Israel.

Today will be the last day on which the Knesset plenum will convene before leaving for the Passover break. The Knesset will return to activity on the 17th of the month, with the convening of the various Knesset committees. Today is expected to be relatively sparse in discussions, and they will mainly deal with issues related to the state budget. In addition, the finance and labor and welfare committees will meet.

At this stage, one of the important laws promoted by the coalition deals with rewards and allowances according to changes and the cost of living. This is, among other things, the proposal for the disability regulations (the maximum amount that is allowed to be deducted from the benefits of a disabled person) and the proposal for the disability regulations (state participation in life insurance expenses and long-term care insurance expenses), following the increase in insurance prices.

In the meantime, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana went on a visit to India to meet his counterpart from the local parliament. Later, for the first time, a large-scale Knesset appointment event is also expected at the invitation and initiative of Speaker Ohana.

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