Coalition again pulls its bills from Knesset agenda due to lack of majority

For the third week in a row, all private member bills sponsored by coalition lawmakers are removed from the Knesset agenda, leaving only opposition legislation on the agenda.

Private member bills are voted on in their preliminary readings on Wednesdays.

The coalition, which now lacks a majority, has not advanced private member bills for preliminary readings since the beginning of the winter legislative session last month due to ongoing rift with ultra-Orthodox parties, which are maintaining a partial legislative boycott. The boycott started during the previous legislative session.

Shas quit the government in July over increased enforcement against draft dodgers as well as the coalition’s failure to pass legislation regulating draft exemptions for yeshiva students. Its exit from the government followed that of fellow ultra-Orthodox party United Torah Judaism, which, unlike Shas, also left the coalition.

Far-right lawmaker Avi Maoz, the sole MK representing the anti-LGBTQ, misogynistic Noam party, subsequently left the coalition, leaving it with only 60 out of 120 Knesset seats and significantly hobbling its ability to advance its legislative agenda.

“Another day without legislation. Lacking a majority, the minority government has pulled the coalition laws from the agenda and the plenary session is significantly shortened,” Opposition Leader Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party says in a statement.

Asked about the removal of coalition bills from the agenda, a spokeswoman for coalition whip Ofir Katz tells The Times of Israel that “the coalition hasn’t been bringing up draft bills since the beginning of the session because of the Haredim.”

“Hopefully it will be sorted out next week,” the spokeswoman adds, in an apparent reference to efforts by Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth to advance a bill regulating the conscription of yeshiva students.