‘Don’t assume everyone is stupid’: Likud MK blasts Netanyahu’s handling of overhaul
Tally Gotliv lashes out at PM and party leader after report reveals that he blames her for preventing his plan to restructure the Judicial Selection Committee
Renegade Likud MK Tally Gotliv lashed out Sunday at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after a report revealed that he blamed her for preventing his plan to restructure the Judicial Selection Committee.
According to the Kan public broadcaster, Netanyahu told fellow ministers during a private meeting over the weekend that Gotliv’s refusal last week to rescind her candidacy for the key parliamentary panel delayed his plan to advance a key part of the government’s judicial overhaul.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu,” Gotliv tweeted following the report. “I heard you told ministers that because of me, the legislation regarding the appointment of judges was delayed. Please don’t assume that everyone is stupid.”
She went on to claim that Netanyahu’s office had sought to convince her to vote for the opposition’s candidate for the Judicial Selection Committee, explaining that the coalition would be restructuring the panel anyway. “I will remind you that I told you in the presence of other ministers that I do not believe [you] and that you will not touch the [Judicial Selection Committee], she tweeted.
Gotliv would go on to lose the vote to become one of the Knesset’s two representatives on the Judicial Selection Committee while the opposition’s candidate Yesh Atid MK Karine Elharrar won thanks to support from several coalition lawmakers. It was a secret ballot, so it is not clear which MKs backed Elharrar, but Gotliv suggested in her Sunday tweet that Netanyahu was among them.
The Likud party issued a denial on Sunday of Gotliv’s claim that Netanyahu asked her to vote for Elharrar. “All that was asked of her was to maintain coalition discipline and remove her candidacy,” the party said.
The premier had been thought to have directed the coalition to vote against both Gotliv and Elharrar in what would give him another month to get his coalition in line before another vote would be held.
But Elharrar’s election dealt an embarrassing blow to Netanyahu’s coalition, which has been seeking to gain control over the Judicial Selection Committee, which traditionally includes one MK from the ruling bloc and another from the opposition.
On Thursday, Likud coalition whip Ofir Katz announced a series of sanctions against Gotliv. She will be removed from her parliamentary committee assignments, including her seat on the influential Constitution, Law and Justice Committee which has been tasked with advancing the judicial overhaul legislation.
Gotliv will also be barred from submitting any legislation and will be prevented from formally speaking on behalf of the Likud party in Knesset proceedings, Katz said.
The Likud lawmaker said later that day that she intended to appeal the decision to the High Court of Justice. However, Knesset Legal Adviser Sagit Afik informed Gotliv on Sunday that the sanctions placed on her are legal.
In response, she tweeted that would consider petitioning the Likud party’s internal court to have the sanctions waived.
According to the Sunday Kan report, Netanyahu now intends to advance a bill curbing the High Court’s ability to use the doctrine of “reasonableness” to review government decisions.
He will then take another stab at restructuring the Judicial Selections Committee, though Kan said he told ministers that he was canning the government’s current bill on the matter — far-reaching legislation that was about to be enacted in late March before mass public uproar led Netanyahu to temporarily shelve the effort.
The Times of Israel Community.