The Foreign Ministry and Histadrut workers’ committee submitted this morning (Sunday) its response to the petition submitted to the Central Election Commission by the Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and State, demanding that the workers be required to send the ballot boxes intended for voting abroad via diplomatic mail, despite the sanctions announced by the ministry. In response to the petition, the lawyers asked to reject it in full, claiming that only the Labor Court has the authority to discuss the issue. They also claim that this is a cynical attempt to evade a hearing before the labor court and the resolution of the crisis through negotiations.
Prime Minister Yair Lapid: “I have no interest in being Benjamin Netanyahu” | special interview
In the words of the response to the petition submitted after the workers announced that they would not send the polling stations to Israel’s embassies in the world as part of the sanctions imposed on the ministry for about a year, it was stated that this was a “legitimate action within the framework of a labor dispute duly declared by the Histadrut” and that, “the petitioners are trying to evade discussion of the conflict itself and the obligation to hold the “M for the resolution of the conflict (an obligation which they knowingly and blatantly violate), and therefore they request to refer the discussion to a court that does not deal at all with the labor dispute and labor relations, and to focus the discussion only on the issue of the difficulty and inconvenience caused to them due to the sanctions.” The workers’ representatives also clarify that the obligation according to A law to ensure the exercise of the voting right of 4,300 eligible voters abroad is up to the Central Election Commission and not them.
Lawyers Hana Schnitzer, Ofir Sobol, and Orna Navon-Cohen further reject the claims of the Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the petition that he attributed to his employees the commission of a criminal offense in their actions, and claim that “in the first place there is no violation of the provisions of the election law, but at most a natural discomfort arising from parades Organizations taken by employees in the framework of a legally declared labor dispute”.
According to them, the petitioners wanted to “threaten the workers, and drive a wedge between them and their representatives in the Histadrut and the Workers’ Committee” and stayed before the courts, hoping that this course of action would deter the respondents.
The Foreign Ministry Employees’ Committee responded: “On New Year’s Eve, we feel great sadness that Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid continues to act in an unprecedented manner against the employees of his office while significantly harming Israeli diplomacy. His decision and instruction to state representatives not to negotiate with the employees, while Using his position as the head of the executive authority is characterized by extreme implausibility and is tainted by irrelevant considerations. Forceful moves will not loosen our hands from continuing to fulfill our obligations towards the employees and their families and from working to save the foreign service of the State of Israel.”