Deri said to threaten bill dispersing Knesset, potentially buying another week for legislation

Shas chairman Aryeh Deri has reportedly threatened to hold up the legislation formally dispersing the Knesset ahead of the national election this fall.

According to Hebrew media reports, Deri is refusing to vote in favor of the bill to provide election funding to parties, which also includes the dispersal of the Knesset. Such a move could give the Knesset an additional week to pass legislation, though it had previously been agreed upon that it would disperse today ahead of the October 27 vote.

Deri reportedly is demanding that opposition parties also vote in favor of the legislation, although they have said that they will refuse to support the bill and that the coalition must summon the votes for its passage.

Knesset legal adviser Sagit Afik said earlier in a hearing that if the party funding bill does not pass today or some other mechanism to disperse the Knesset doesn’t pass, “the Knesset may continue operating until 90 days before the election date. My recommendation is to pass the bill in its entirety.”

Hours later, however, the Knesset Spokesman’s Office said early Friday morning that the Knesset House Committee approves legislation that will formally disperse the Knesset as of Saturday, July 18.

The Knesset will remain in recess from that date until the 26th Knesset convenes following the election, the statement says.

It was not immediately clear if the vote on the dispersal date still needs to come to the full Knesset plenum.

Earlier, Yisrael Beytenu chief Avigdor Liberman asserted that the Knesset dispersal is not tied to passing the bill but “was predetermined for July 17.”

Liberman claimed that “the coalition’s contemptible attempt to tie the end of the session to increasing party funding has no basis in reality.”