Several parliamentary assistants working for Labor party MKs will be barred from the Knesset until the end of the summer session after they interrupted proceedings on a committee vote on part of the government’s controversial judicial overhaul legislation.
Chaos took hold of the committee in the final voting session late Wednesday night, as several parliamentary advisers of opposition MKs grabbed the microphones and denounced panel chairman Simcha Rothman and the coalition, including one woman who stormed up to Rothman and shouted in his face.
The aides were swiftly ejected by Knesset orderlies.
In a statement after the incident, the Knesset said that “given the most severe disturbances” during the vote, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana had directed the chief officer of the Knesset to bar them from the building until the end of the summer session.
In a letter sent to Labor MKs Merav Michaeli, Gilad Kariv, and Naama Lazimi, whose staffers were involved in the incident, the Knesset officer said their outburst “had been planned ahead of time with the aim of undermining procedures and stopping the vote.”
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It called their actions “completely unprecedented” and said they could not be ignored.
The summer session concludes at the end of next week.
מהומה: יועצים פרלמנטרים מהאופוזיציה התפרצו לדיון בוועדת חוקה והוצאו בכח pic.twitter.com/FNEvJY3YaT
— עמיאל ירחי (@amiel_y) July 19, 2023
Labor party chief Michaeli, however, defended their actions.
“Proud of the Labor parliamentary advisers. They spend days and nights in the Knesset and are seeing up close how the coalition is destroying Israeli democracy and fracturing their future here, and they are tired of being silent,” she said.
“They don’t have the right to speak in Rothman’s committee, but you can’t take away their right to protest. These young men and women are future leaders of Israel and they will not let the current coalition of extremists drag Israel into the abyss. We are all behind you,” she said.
Opposition MKs themselves erupted on numerous occasions throughout the course of Tuesday night and Wednesday in protest at what they alleged were serious violations of Knesset protocol by Rothman during the voting process, including miscounts of the votes.
Several MKs were also ejected from proceedings.
National Unity MK Sharren Haskel is removed from the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee room during a hearing on the coalition’s bill to drastically reduce the courts’ use of the reasonableness standard, July 19, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
But Knesset Legal Adviser Sagit Afik sided with the committee chairman in every instance and rejected the opposition’s claims of a flawed process, saying she and her team had closely observed the voting and insisting that all problems were dealt with in real-time.
The Knesset plenum is scheduled to begin the final two readings of the bill on Sunday morning.
The incident came at the end of several marathon sessions by the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, which had to slog through some 27,000 objections meant to slow down the progress of the legislation, after compromise talks collapsed last month.
The second and third readings on the bill, an amendment to Basic Law: The Judiciary, will begin on Sunday in the Knesset plenum, and the bill is expected to be approved and passed into law on Monday or Tuesday.
The bill would ban the Supreme Court and lower courts from reviewing decisions made by the government and cabinet ministers based on their “reasonableness.”
Proponents say barring the use of the doctrine is needed to halt judicial interference in government decisions, arguing that it amounts to unelected judges substituting their judgment for that of elected officials.
Opponents argue, however, that it will weaken the courts’ ability to review decisions that harm civil rights, and hinder their ability to protect senior civil servants who hold sensitive positions such as the attorney general, police commissioner and others, from dismissal on improper grounds.
The measure will likely be the first part of the government’s judicial overhaul plan to pass into law, and street protests have ratcheted up as it has moved toward the final votes. Hundreds of activists are currently marching from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem with plans to demonstrate outside parliament as the vote takes place. Wednesday also saw a warning strike from the Israel Medical Association and hundreds of military reservists have joined a growing movement of volunteers refusing to serve in protest of the overhaul.
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