Last update - 00:00 30/10/2007
MK Sharoni ousted from chairmanship of Knesset panel by own party
By Zvi Zarhiya, Haaretz Correspondent
The Knesset Labor and Welfare Committee voted Tuesday to dismiss MK Moshe Sharoni from his position as chairman and replace him with MK Itzhak Galanti, a fellow member of the Pensioners party. Sharoni was ousted by a vote of 9-3.
Sharoni's ousting was initiated by his own Pensioners party, who opposed his plan to advance a bill that would increase elderly stipends from 16 to 20 percent of the average salary in Israel.
"I feel contempt for the members of the Pensioners party who orchestrated this lynch. I will fight to destroy all those who betrayed the 750 thousand pensioners. You must stick to what you promised your voters and deliver," Sharoni said in response to his ousting.
Meretz MK Ran Cohen, one of three MKs who voted against Sharoni's removal, called the ousting a parliamentary guillotine. "Sharon's only sin was that he wanted to see through a coalition agreement that was not being honored by the government," Cohen said.
"This is not a joyous day for me," Galanti said after replacing Sharoni as chairman. "The disagreement was about how to raise the elderly stipend - not whether to."
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