Defying High Court, Edelstein won’t say when he’ll hold vote on new Knesset speaker

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein informs the High Court of Justice that he will not accede to its position that he should hold a vote on electing a new Knesset speaker by Wednesday.

He says he considers that the court’s intervention in his decisions regarding the Knesset agenda “is not appropriate at this time” and calls such intervention “unprecedented.” Given the current extraordinary circumstances, he adds that he can’t say when he’ll schedule the vote but “I hope it will happen in the very near future.”

“I won’t agree to ultimatums,” Edelstein says in a lengthy statement. “The intervention of the attorney general in an internal parliamentary process of the Knesset is out of place.”

Edelstein was responding to the justices’ position, set out earlier Wednesday, that indicated he should hold a vote on his job by Wednesday. The justices cited positions to this effect by the attorney general and the Knesset’s legal adviser.