Coalition stumbles into last legislative week before Passover break

The coalition faltered in the Knesset Monday afternoon, in a weak opening to the final legislative week before parliament breaks for Passover recess next Sunday, failing to even bring to a vote two of its flagship pieces of legislation: reform of conversion to Judaism and a bid to limit prime ministerial terms to eight consecutive years.

The bill to impose premiership term limits is awaiting its third and final reading, but because it would amend a quasi-constitutional Basic Law, passing the bill as law requires an absolute majority of 61 votes in the 120-seat partliament, which the coalition currently does not have.

Opposition MK Avi Maoz (Religious Zionist) is sick with COVID-19, and due to a standing agreement between the coalition and opposition to cancel out votes for legislators who contract the virus, the coalition is down one vote to 60 and had to withdraw the bill.

Imposing term limits is one of Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s signature reforms, although the bill would not apply retroactively to former prime minister and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, Sa’ar’s political rival.

Conversion reform, which seeks to wrest the process from the Chief Rabbinate’s hold by allowing regional and municipal-level rabbinical courts to approve admission to Judaism, was pulled before its first reading. The coalition could not muster enough votes due to its member the Islamist Ra’am party insisting it wouldn’t interfere in Jewish religious matters.

The coalition was relying on Ra’am to suspend its practice of not interfering in Jewish religious affairs — with the expectation that the coalition’s Jewish parties do the same when it comes to Muslim institutions — but the party withdrew its support after being subjected to steady pressure from ultra-Orthodox and national religious parties.

MK Bezalel Smotrich, who leads the opposition’s far-right Religious Zionism party, threatened retributive interference in Islamic affairs should Ra’am support the conversion bill, tweeting that “if [Ra’am] harms Judaism, we will do the same to Islam when we return to power.”

פניתי הבוקר לחברי הכנסת של רע"מ והבהרתי להם את השלכות התמיכה שלהם בחוק הגיור וההתערבות שלהם בענייני היהדות על יחסי היהדות והאיסלאם במדינת ישראל. נפעל מולם "מידה כנגד מידה". אם הם יפגעו ביהדות אנחנו נעשה אותו דבר לאיסלאם כשנחזור בעזרת השם לשלטון. pic.twitter.com/myDZSIFABj

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On Monday, before the opening of the legislative plenum, Smotrich sent a letter to Ra’am, in which he wrote that he was drawing a direct line between Ra’am’s support for the law and Islamic-Jewish relations.

“The conversion bill that you intend to vote for today at the request of the coalition concerns the internal, most important, and sensitive issues of Judaism and will have far-reaching and long-term implications for Islam in Israel and for relations between members of the Jewish and Muslim religions in Israel,” Smotrich wrote in the Arabic-language letter.

In addition to the loss of Ra’am’s four votes, Yamina MK Abir Kara also pulled his backing because the coalition did not deliver on measures promised to him last week in return for supporting the military pension bill, including financial support for self-employed workers and advancing regulatory changes.

MK Abir Kara during a Knesset plenum session, February 28, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The term limit and conversion bills are not expected to return to the plenum until after the Passover recess, which ends on May 9.

The coalition is expected to face another major test this week when it attempts to pass the controversial Citizenship Law. The bill passed its first reading in January and is in the process of drawn-out committee discussions to unify government and private bill proposals.

Introduced at the height of the Second Intifada, the 2003 Citizenship and Entry Law largely prevents Palestinians who marry Israelis from obtaining permanent residency. It has been renewed annually by every Knesset, until the current government could not achieve a majority and let it lapsed last year.