UTJ lawmakers say party won’t vote to oust Ayman Odeh from the Knesset

The United Torah Judaism party will not vote to expel Hadash-Ta’al chair Ayman Odeh from the Knesset, likely dooming the coalition effort to oust him, two party lawmakers tell The Times of Israel.

While MK Yitzhak Pindrus of the party’s Degel Hatorah faction expresses negative feelings toward Odeh, he says that the High Court of Justice would overturn the decision, making the point moot.

MK Moshe Roth, of UTJ’s Hasidic Agudat Yisrael faction, confirms that the party will not participate in today’s expulsion vote as it is currently voting against the coalition as a way of exerting political pressure in an unrelated matter regarding military conscription.

The Knesset is scheduled to vote this afternoon on whether to eject Odeh. The vote requires a supermajority of 90 out of 120 to pass. Last month the Knesset House Committee approved lawmakers’ statutory 70-signature petition, which included at least 10 signatures from the opposition.

The petition was put forth in January, when Odeh said he was “happy for the release of hostages and prisoners” as part of the Gaza truce that was signed that month. The petition clinched the required number of signatures after Odeh said at an anti-war protest in Haifa in May that “Gaza has won and Gaza will win.”

In order for the motion to pass, all of the coalition lawmakers and 22 opposition MKs would need to vote in favor.

UTJ’s decision not to vote in favor of the measure likely means its defeat.

Fellow ultra-Orthodox party Shas has indicated that it will vote in favor, while Opposition Leader Yair Lapid has said he will allow his MKs to vote according to their consciences.

However, addressing his Yesh Atid party’s weekly faction meeting this afternoon, Lapid stated that “if the coalition doesn’t bring its members [the Haredim], I won’t show up.”