As bills hit snags, will Netanyahu be forced to kill his darlings?
With the conclusion of a Knesset session, a look at the laws passed, the laws reversed, and the laws that appear to be stuck
Marissa Newman is The Times of Israel political correspondent.
With all eyes on fresh graft allegations against Interior Minister Aryeh Deri and opposition leader Isaac Herzog, there was little drama in the plenum itself last Wednesday as the Knesset wrapped up its six-month winter session — no last-minute efforts were made to pass some of the contentious legislation that dominated the public debate in recent months, leaving it up in the air until the parliament reconvenes in May.
From the NGO transparency bill to a proposal to expel terrorists’ families to the MK suspension bill to a proposal to defund cultural institutions that are “disloyal,” the hot topics that dominated in the past half a year were not among the some 110 laws the Knesset did approve in the unusually long session.
Below is a look at the legislation that sailed through the Knesset in the winter term, and the misconduct — real and alleged — that came to characterize much of the session. It was a term marked more by controversy than policy, various attempts to undo legislation passed by the previous Knesset, and scandal after scandal.
In the final days of the session, the suspected corruption overshadowed everything else, but when the Knesset reconvenes, the question will remain: Will Netanyahu let the much-debated proposals quietly die in committee, will they be softened considerably before the second and third readings, or will the lawmakers plow full steam ahead?
Noise, but little headway
The bills that generated the fiercest controversy in the Knesset have not made it past a first reading thus far (if that), with some — such as the deportation of terrorists’ families and the barring of non-Orthodox conversions at Israel’s ritual baths — earning explicit criticism from the attorney general.
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit recently opined that a bill that would give the rabbinate control of Israel’s ritual baths — which was approved in a first reading on March 17 — was unconstitutional, and reportedly said a proposal to deport terrorists’ families (which was submitted to the Knesset, but has not been voted on) could contravene international law. The latter proposal has broad coalition support, including from the Kulanu party.
Mandelblit has, however, approved a bill by Culture Minister Miri Regev (Likud) allowing her to pull funding from cultural institutions that degrade state symbols or the flag, mark Israel’s Independence Day as a day of mourning, deny Israel’s right to exist, reject Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, or incite to violence, terrorism, or racist hate crimes. But the bill, which critics have deemed “fascist,” is opposed by Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu) since it would transfer the existing executive powers from the treasury (which have never been utilized) to the Culture Ministry.
The NGO bill, which would require organizations that receive the majority of their funding from foreign countries to make that fact plain in all documents they issue, passed a first reading in February. Meanwhile, a bill to limit donations to NGOs seeking to influence Israel’s elections — known as the V15 bill, named for an organization active during the last election to oust Netanyahu — was initially scheduled to be brought for a first reading before the Knesset dispersed. The vote was postponed indefinitely at the last minute, with no official explanation.
If there was one victory for the coalition in the last week of the term, it was in the approval of the MK suspension bill in its first reading last Monday. The proposal would allow 90 MKs to vote to suspend lawmakers if they “negate the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state,” incite racism, or express support for a terror group or state in its war against Israel. The bill was introduced largely as a response to a visit by three Arab MKs to a family of a Palestinian terrorist in an encounter they said was aimed at pressuring Israel to release the attacker’s body, but was largely seen as a condolence visit. The head of the Joint (Arab) List, Ayman Odeh, has said he would quit the Knesset if the bill, which is also opposed by President Reuven Rivlin, becomes law.
The new mixed-gender Western Wall plaza, announced in January, was initially seen as a historic compromise and win for Israel’s Reform and Conservative streams. But following opposition by the ultra-Orthodox and Chief Rabbinate (archaeologists and the Palestinians have also come out against it), Netanyahu last month conceded that “difficulties have arisen” and the plan would be tweaked within 60 days. The Supreme Court this week gave the government an additional three months to resolve the issue.
And finally, continuing the trend of controversy followed by apparent victory followed by fresh obstacles, the offshore gas deal, which Netanyahu successfully had the Knesset approve, hit a wall in the form of the Supreme Court of Justice, which torpedoed it in a landmark ruling.
Many of the above bills were publicly supported by Netanyahu, including the NGO bill, the MK suspension bill, the gas deal, and the terrorists’ families deportations.
Israel’s newest laws
The Knesset in a statement touted some 110 new laws in the past session, noting specifically the tougher penalties for rock-throwers (minimum three years in jail) in a temporary provision that would need to be relegislated in three years’ time. It also pointed to MK Moti Yogev’s (Jewish Home) law, approved on March 14, that considerably increased fines for Israelis who employ Palestinians in Israel illegally. The fines go up as high as NIS 75,000 for a private employer and NIS 300,000 for a corporation — for a first offense. Repeated offenses, employing two illegal Palestinians or more, or for two consecutive days or more was classified as a crime carrying a four-year jail term and a NIS 226,000 fine.
The Knesset also underlined the stop-and-frisk bill, which allows police to search passersby without reasonable suspicion. And, curiously, it highlighted the striking of a clause barring journalists from expressing their opinions on-air (a clause inserted by two coalition lawmakers and approved in a late-night session, which later drew much criticism, prompting the Knesset to backtrack).
Last week also saw the passage of a series of laws with little fanfare.
On Wednesday, the Knesset passed into law a bill that would allow the government to cut off the phone lines of serial police prank callers. The law — proposed by Zionist Union MKs Merav Michaeli and Omer Bar-Lev, and Jewish Home MK Nissan Smoliansky — came in response to the police’s failure to respond to the call by kidnapped teenager Gil-ad Shaer, who along with Naftali Fraenkel and Eyal Yifrach was abducted and killed by Palestinian terrorists in June 2014. Police at the time said the hotline centers were bombarded by thousands of prank calls daily, making it impossible for them to respond.
It also passed a reform of financial sector executive pay on Monday that seeks to shrink the gap between the lowest- and highest-paid employees in the nation’s banks and insurance firms, setting an upper limit for the top executive’s gross salary at 35 times the gross income of the lowest-paid worker in the institution, or 44 times the lowest-paid net.
The Knesset also passed laws limiting the legal fees for Holocaust survivors, levying a charge for plastic bags at supermarkets, and criminalizing consensual sexual relations between religious or spiritual leaders and their followers while under their guidance, if the “consent for the sexual relationship was obtained through real emotional dependency, originating in counseling and training,” according to the text of the law by Meretz MK Michal Rozin.
Rolling back legislation
With the ultra-Orthodox parties back in the coalition, Haredi lawmakers and other coalition MKs focused some of their efforts on unraveling legislation approved in the previous Knesset, most prominently in extending ultra-Orthodox army draft deferments until 2023 and canceling communal penalties if the annual quotas of enlistees are not met.
Quietly, the Knesset also pushed off the dismantling of the Israel Broadcasting Authority, moved to cancel a 2013 book discounts law, postponed the plan to complete a biometric national database by an additional nine months, and moved to restore fluoride to Israel’s water supply (after it had been removed under former health minister Yael German’s watch).
Knesset of disrepute
The Knesset session also saw the departure from politics of veteran Likud minister Silvan Shalom and Jewish Home MK Yinon Magal over sexual harassment allegations.
The Likud’s rookie lawmaker Oren Hazan was also in the limelight for much of the term for various improprieties — for allegations that he solicited prostitutes and used crystal meth while working as a manager of a Bulgarian casino, for insulting a fellow lawmaker for her disability, for holding a screaming match with another MK in the Knesset parking lot, and for failing to report his primaries spending. Hazan was suspended from committees twice in the past half a year, once by the Ethics Committee for his mockery of MK Karin Elharar (Yesh Atid), and more recently by his own party.
And in the final days of the session, Interior Minister Deri — who served a prison sentence for corruption while serving as interior minister — and Herzog were being investigated for graft.
