The Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee was scheduled to begin a discussion today regarding the proposed draft of the “expulsion law” that would allow Knesset Members to expel one of their own for supporting terrorism and inciting against the country by gathering 90 votes to approve the expulsion of Knesset Member. 

Following comments made by Knesset Speaker, Yuli Edelstein (Likud), stating that he has no intention of allowing such a law to progress through the plenum as well as the harsh criticism that the proposal received, Committee Chairman Nissan Slomiansky (Jewish Home) has cancelled the discussion on the draft proposal.   

Edelstein said during a conference of the Israel Democracy Institute, that he will not allow for a law such as this to pass while he is Speaker of the Knesset. There have been Prime Ministers who didn’t want MKs such as Edelstein in the Knesset either. During Ariel Sharon’s term as Prime Minister 10 years ago Edelstein was one of the “rebels” fighting against the expulsion of Gush Katif. 

The draft proposal has met with harsh criticism even from members of the coalition who believe that if a law such as this were to pass, it would be so heavily burdened with stipulations and addenda that it would cease to provide an answer for the problem which it sets out to solve. Another concern is that the High Court of Justice will dismiss the law should it be endowed with any real teeth.  

It should be noted that even President Reuven Rivlin on Monday evening launched a verbal fusillade against the bill, even though the president is supposed to act as a non-political figurehead of the state.

Rivlin called the law a breach of democracy, saying that “the law to depose a Member of Knesset oversteps the reality that the Knesset is representative of the sovereign, not the sovereign itself, and places the elected above the public. …We cannot allow the Knesset, whose representatives are chosen by the public, to independently overturn the public’s choices.”

“A Knesset that is able, even if justly, to today decide upon the cessation of the office of such representatives of the public, will tomorrow, unjustly do so to others, and then where will we be?”