Tel Aviv metro megaproject advances as bill from previous Knesset re-okayed by committee

The Tel Aviv metro project moves another small step forward, as the Ministerial Committee on Legislation approves advancing legislation held over from the past Knesset.

Pushed by Transportation Minister Miri Regev (Likud) and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionism), the so-called Metro Law will create the funding and oversight mechanism necessary to embark upon Israel’s most ambitious infrastructure project to date.

Although the bill won wide support and passed its first reading in the previous Knesset, it fell victim to politicking in the aftermath of the previous government’s collapse and the decision to call early elections. Likud and Religious Zionism at the time joined all parties in the current coalition in stonewalling the bill’s final passage.

Now, it has been cleared for its second and third — final — readings in the Knesset plenum.