Rothman urges calm during Knesset recess, before overhaul push expected to resume

Opening today’s meeting of the Knesset Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee, the panel’s chair Simcha Rothman says the upcoming Knesset recess can be an opportunity to reduce tensions, ahead of a winter session that is expected to be packed with judicial overhaul legislation.

“Yesterday’s events are important, and we should all take advantage of the recess to calm things down, take time to relax and think about how to continue and reach discussions and agreements regarding the future,” says Rothman, a member of the far-right Religious Zionism party.

The committee head, whom opposition figures have accused of running the panel with an iron fist and shutting down avenues of debate, seems to accuse the opposition of pigheadedness ahead of yesterday’s final votes to pass the coalition’s first judicial overhaul law.

“If there is one lesson that is important for us all to learn, it is that when you shout, it is difficult to listen. It is possible and necessary to conduct dialogue and discussion, as we have been able to do in many other laws, and hopefully also in the law that is placed before us, with fewer superlatives and less shouting. We will all benefit from this,” Rothman says.

Labor MK Gilad Kariv, Rothman’s predecessor as committee leader, slaps back sarcastically.

“You are truly a role model for difficult inclusion and trust. Maybe we will gather for a workshop with an emphasis on the field of morality,” he says. “We need to do some soul-searching in the opposition.”