First reading of bill to dissolve Knesset pushed off to Tuesday

The Knesset plenum vote on dissolving the government and calling elections for Marcxh 16, 2021, has been pushed off to Tuesday, Hebrew-language media reports.

After the Knesset okayed the bill in a preliminary reading and a committee approved it, the bill needs to pass three additional plenum readings.

Normally, first readings of law bills are held on Mondays. However, Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party — who sets the schedule — is believed to be interested in hindering the legislation, since Likud wants elections to be held at a later date and doesn’t want key amendments included in the bill regarding election funding to take effect.

If the bill isn’t passed by December 23 (and Likud and Blue and White don’t reach an unlikely last-minute compromise on the state budget), elections will be automatically called for March 23 with no further amendments.