Report: Far-right opposes Tibi as deputy speaker; Likud inclined to support him

Veteran Arab MK has held role since 2006; Netanyahu’s party said planning to get back at Lapid when staffing Knesset committees

By ToI Staff 31 December 2022, 11:08 pm

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MK Ahmad Tibi speaks in the Knesset plenum during a memorial ceremony marking 27 years since the assassination of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, November 6, 2022. (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90)

The far-right Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit parties want to keep Ta’al MK Ahmad Tibi away from the role of deputy Knesset speaker, a position he has held since 2006, Channel 12 news reported Saturday.

The network, citing sources in Religious Zionism and the chief of Otzma Yehudit, Itamar Ben Gvir, said both parties oppose re-appointing Tibi as deputy speaker in the new Knesset, accusing him of being a “terror supporter.”

Channel 12 said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, and the ultra-Orthodox parties of United Torah Judaism and Shas are inclined to support Tibi, a veteran lawmaker.

The issue is yet to be resolved, the network said.

Channel 12 also reported that Likud is planning to get even with former prime minister Yair Lapid and his Yesh Atid party when staffing the Knesset’s various committees, by giving them minimal representation in key committees and handing them control of those considered less important.

Members of the new right-wing government, when in the opposition, accused Lapid and former prime minister Naftali Bennett of similar actions.

The network claimed Likud would attempt to stir up trouble in the opposition by being more generous to Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party when handing out committee positions. Gantz and Lapid, previously united under one party, split up after the former joined a government with Netanyahu in 2020. Their relations have appeared strained ever since.

Meanwhile, returning Likud MK Danny Danon expressed disappointment over not receiving a ministerial role in Netanyahu’s new government.

Likud MK Danny Danon in the Knesset in Jerusalem on December 13, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

“They trampled us in the negotiations,” Danon told Channel 12. Danon said Netanyahu had offered him the Intelligence Ministry, but he declined.

“In my opinion, the intelligence portfolio is unnecessary in its current form, along with several other portfolios. In this portfolio specifically, you have no authority, you write reports and advise,” he told the network.

Netanyahu appointed Gila Gamliel as intelligence minister at the last minute.