(IsraelNN.com) Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu threatened Wednesday to sack ministers and deputy ministers who vote against the Land Privatization Bill and the “laws of governance” scheduled to come up for a vote soon.
The Prime Minister’s Office announced this unusual threat after the coalition suffered an embarrassing setback Wednesday when it was forced to halt the voting on the Land Privatization Bill, for fear that it lacked the votes to pass it.
The government plans to convene the Knesset for a special session ten days from now, after the Knesset goes on recess, for voting again on the bill, Maariv-NRG reported.
The government failed to garner enough support for the second reading of the Land Privatization Bill and had to ask Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin to halt the vote and postpone it to a later date. Speaker Rivlin informed the plenum that the government had requested, through its representative, Minister Gidon Saar, that the vote be halted.
Rivlin announced that the vote was discontinued, and that it would resume no earlier than a week from today (Wednesday), and no later than three weeks from today, inclusive of days in which the Knesset will already be in recess.
The debate that preceded the vote gave rise to some parliamentary drama, when it became clear that Labor MKs were absent from the plenum and would not participate in the vote. Without the knowledge of other coalition members, Labor’s MKs had arranged for their votes to be cancelled out with those of opponents of the law. This meant that their votes would neither improve or diminish the law’s chances of passing.
Before requesting the discontinuation of the vote, the coalition used a filibuster technique to give Prime Ministyer Binyamin Netanyahu time to try and resolve the dispute. Construction and Housing Minister Ariel Atias deliberately stretched out his speech, until Speaker Rivlin announced his displeasure with the matter and cut him short.