Likud official: If airport union chief is booted from party, Netanyahu should be too
Comptroller Shai Galili makes comments as Pinchas Idan faces sanctions for actions against judicial overhaul effort, decries ‘selective enforcement’
Likud Comptroller Shai Galili on Wednesday came to the defense of Airport Workers Union chief Pinchas Idan, a Likud member who faces removal from the party for taking strike action against the government’s judicial overhaul plan on the day the legislation was eventually put on hold.
Idan took action to delay numerous flight departures on March 27 after the Histadrut Labor Federation announced a general strike to protest the legislation. Later that day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a halt to the overhaul to allow time for compromise efforts.
But Idan, a member of the Likud party’s powerful Central Committee, has faced the wrath of the party for his actions and was targeted last month in a petition signed by 2,000 party members calling for his ouster.
Galili said Wednesday that if Idan is booted from Likud, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant should be too.
Galili, who failed to get a spot on Likud’s electoral list last year, reasoned that if lawmakers and ministers representing the party have not faced potential sanctions over their own calls or action to halt the legislation, it was “unacceptable” that Idan face punishment.
“I have become aware of the fact that there were other party members that expressed a need to ‘stop’ the legislative process,” Galili wrote in a letter to Likud Director-General Zuri Siso.
“And one member of Likud, Defense Minister [Yoav] Gallant, even gave an explicit speech that included a demand to stop the legislation — a speech that started a chain of events that led to an aggressive demonstration and the de facto halt of the legislation by the chair of the party [Netanyahu], and all this, against the decision of the faction,” the letter read.
The comptroller said that if Idan is indeed booted from the party, he will demand the same sanctions for Gallant and Netanyahu, and called out “selective enforcement” in the party.
Netanyahu announced that he was firing Gallant on March 26 after the latter warned that the overhaul was causing damage to the country’s security. This led to massive nighttime demonstrations and the influential Histadrut union declared the strike on the morning of March 27, in an unprecedented move coordinated with top business leaders.
Idan then announced an immediate halt to flights out of Ben Gurion Airport, leading to mass delays.
The strike was called off later that day when Netanyahu announced a pause to the judicial legislation, saying that this would allow time for talks aimed at reaching a consensus for any changes. Gallant’s dismissal was eventually canceled.
Idan himself has said that to his knowledge, the strike was implemented in coordination with Netanyahu. Idan said he had acted “in accordance with the instructions of the chairman of the Histadrut labor federation, who said that the strike would be short, focused and was done in coordination with [Likud] party chair” Netanyahu.
Media reports over the past weeks have claimed Netanyahu arranged the strike in order to create pressure on his own government and give him the pretext to halt the legislation against the wishes of many of his coalition allies.
Both the Histadrut chief Arnon Bar-David and the prime minister denied the claims.
Galili said he failed to see any difference between Idan’s actions and those of other party members who opposed the bills, and added that he viewed Gallant’s efforts as “more dominant and severe” in their effect on the course of events.
In response, Likud said in a statement Wednesday evening that the comptroller has “no authority” over the decisions of the party’s internal court.
“He can only decide if he drinks tea or coffee in the morning. After he competed in the Likud primaries, Shai Galili has a clear conflict of interest and therefore can no longer serve in his position,” the statement read.
