Israel’s Supreme Court has ordered the Speaker of the parliament to put into motion a move in the Knesset, which he had rejected, that could weaken close ally Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hold on power.
The rare court intervention in parliamentary procedure followed Yuli Edelstein’s refusal to hold a vote on Wednesday that would likely remove him as Speaker and fast-track legislation to bar Mr Netanyahu from forming a new government with a corruption trial looming.
Mr Edelstein, a member of Mr Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party, had cited the coronavirus crisis and the Israeli leader’s call for a national emergency government as reasons for delaying a vote for the speaker’s position, following the third inconclusive election in 12 months on March 2.
Although no government has been formed to replace Mr Netanyahu’s caretaker coalition, a new parliament has been sworn in and his main rivals — the centrist Blue and White party and its allies, which include a coalition of Arab parties, control a slim majority — 61 of its 120 seats.
Hearing a petition from Blue and White and democracy advocacy groups on Monday to force Mr Edelstein to schedule a vote for a new speaker, the court gave him until the evening to say whether he would be prepared to do so at a parliamentary session on Wednesday. After the deadline passed, Mr Edelstein took to Twitter with an emphatic no.
“With all due respect, I cannot agree to the ultimatum presented to me and Israel’s parliament to hold the session no later than March 25,” he wrote, saying that setting the legislature’s agenda was the speaker’s prerogative, not the court’s.
Read the article by Jeffrey Heller in The Australian.