Yisrael Beiteinu formally demanded on Thursday that Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana hold a vote on electing his replacement at the first session of the 26th Knesset, scheduled for Tuesday, November 10.
In a letter sent on behalf of the party’s seven MKs at the initiative of party leader Avigdor Liberman, faction chairman MK Oded Forer asked Ohana to place the election of the speaker on the agenda of the swearing-in session.
“Ahead of the swearing-in session, and on behalf of the members of the Yisrael Beiteinu faction headed by Avigdor Liberman, numbering seven members, I ask that you place the election of the Knesset speaker on the agenda of the Knesset’s first session, to be held next Tuesday, and hold a vote to elect the speaker of the 26th Knesset,” Forer wrote. Copies were sent to Knesset Secretary Dan Marzouk and Knesset Legal Adviser Sagit Afik. The letter did not name a candidate for the post.
The Democrats, led by Yair Golan, sent a parallel request through MK Efrat Rayten on behalf of the party’s eight MKs. Israel Hayom reported that the letters were part of a coordinated move by all the leaders of the anti-Netanyahu change bloc, including Gadi Eisenkot, Naftali Bennett, Yair Lapid, Golan and Liberman.
Ohana responded the same day in a post addressed to the bloc’s party leaders. “The accepted date for electing a Knesset speaker is the date the government is formed,” he wrote. He said the exception would be a letter signed by a majority of at least 61 MKs requesting an earlier vote, in which case he would schedule it promptly and no later than a week. “There will be no clinging to the horns of the altar,” Ohana added, using a Hebrew expression for refusing to give up power.
Ohana’s 61-signature threshold is based on the framework set by the High Court’s 2020 ruling in the Edelstein case, under which a vote must be held when a majority of MKs requests it. According to B’Hadrei Haredim, all 67 change-bloc MKs have agreed to sign such a request.
The bloc has not yet settled on a candidate. Liberman announced on Monday that Yisrael Beiteinu would back Lapid for the post, after reportedly pushing earlier for Forer. Replacing Ohana would give the bloc control of the Knesset’s agenda, legislation and committee appointments, even while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains in office at the head of a transitional government.
