A day after the 26th Knesset was sworn in, parliamentary work began Wednesday with a heated plenum debate over the composition of the Arrangements Committee. Until a government is formed, the committee organizes the Knesset’s work and sets up its temporary committees.
The session is being chaired by Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana (Likud), who is expected to leave the post next week. The change bloc has gathered the signatures of 67 MKs to replace him with Matan Kahana of Yashar, and Ohana has scheduled the vote for next Tuesday.
Under the agreement within the change bloc, MK Roy Folkman of Yashar is slated to chair the Arrangements Committee. The two sides are sharply divided over how its seats should be allocated.
Folkman proposed a ratio of one seat for every five MKs, which in bloc terms would give the change bloc nine representatives, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc without United Torah Judaism eight, and the Arab parties four, according to Maariv. Likud’s Ofir Katz offered a compromise of one seat for every seven MKs. That would give the right-wing and chareidi parties eight seats, the change bloc eight and the Arab parties three. The right has demanded a Jewish majority on the committee.
Katz claimed that the change bloc rejected his offer because Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman, slated to chair the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, “doesn’t want to be seen as appointed by Arab votes.”
UTJ’s Yitzhak Goldknopf and Shas’s Yinon Azoulay will represent the chareidi parties on the committee. UTJ has assigned Yaakov Asher to the Finance Committee and Eliyahu Stark to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, and named Yitzhak Pindrus as a deputy Knesset speaker.
The debate is expected to drag on, with more than 70 MKs registered to speak, and the change bloc fears a filibuster by Netanyahu’s bloc that could delay the vote.
Opening the debate, Folkman said: “I didn’t come to educate anyone, but there are norms and there are laws. In the Arrangements Committee, I will set limits on thuggish behavior.” He said he had approached Katz and offered to reach agreement on the committee’s composition.
Folkman intends to convene the Arrangements Committee later Wednesday, if the plenum approves its formation.
