Your mandate is your party’s, not yours, Meretz’s Horowitz scolds MKs

Meretz head Nitzan Horowitz says that lawmakers, since they are elected as members of a party, are not free agents to vote however they want but must toe the party line, appearing to aim criticism at party maverick Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi.

“The mandate given to each Knesset member in the coalition is not theirs personally. They need to vote in line with the coalition,” Horowitz says at the start of his Meretz faction meeting.

Rinawie Zoabi was one of several coalition MKs who refused to back a bill renewing legal protections for settlers, sinking it and possibly the coalition.

The comments from the Meretz chief come after he and Rinawie Zoabi met earlier in the day. Both were mum on whether the two were closer to a deal on legislative priorities and commitments; Horowitz called the meeting “important,” and Rinawie Zoabi said it was a “good meeting.”