PM lawyer: New government effectively made up of coalition and opposition

Defending the coalition agreement’s stripping of the opposition’s official representative in the Committee for Appointing judges, Netanyahu’s lawyer Michael Rabilo says the new government will effectively be made of a coalition and an opposition on this matter and that the competing opinions will be represented on the panel.

The coalition deal sees right-wing Derech Eretz MK Zvi Hauser sitting on the committee instead of an MK from the opposition. Netanyahu is believed to prefer Hauser, as while he is not a Likud MK, he has a more conservative approach to judicial appointments than the average likely opposition lawmaker from Meretz, Yesh Atid or the Joint List.

Justice Neal Hendel appears not to accept the argument, responding: “The government does not define what coalition and opposition are.”