Likud minister: Overhaul legislation should be stopped ‘to allow things to calm down’

Miki Zohar, the Likud’s culture and sports minister, calls the current situation untenable and says “if Netanyahu decides to stop the legislation, he should be backed… That’s the imperative of the hour.”

Speaking on Channel 12, he says, “people believed that the reform would render the country undemocratic…  Lots of good people went out to demonstrate.”

While the legislation should be paused now, “to allow things to calm down,” Zohar says, nonetheless, “we have to complete this reform — with intelligence… and better explanation.”

He says he doesn’t know what Netanyahu will decide to do.

Half the country elected the coalition to carry out the reform, Zohar says, but not now — “not with the streets on fire. You don’t burn down the home on its residents.”

He favors discussions with the opposition on the reform, but “If we can’t reach agreements we have to complete the reform that we were elected to carry out.”