Coalition-backed Bill on Religious Pluralism Fails After Knesset Speaker Mistakenly Votes Against It
Legislation introduced by Labor lawmaker Gilad Kariv that would have increased female representation on the religious court judicial appointments committee goes down in a tie vote
A coalition-sponsored legislation to restructure the religious court judicial appointments committee was defeated Thursday after Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy voted against it by mistake.
Introduced by Labor lawmaker and Reform Rabbi Gilad Kariv, the bill would require two of the appointments committee members to be women. It was torpedoed in a 51-51 tie vote after Levy accidentally voted against it in the third reading required for the legislation's final passage.
Levy of Yesh Atid, a coalition member, said he consulted with the Knesset legal adviser about changing his vote retroactively and was told that wasn’t possible.
The government may reintroduce the bill, and it would need to pass all three Knesset votes to become law. This would involve considerable work for coalition lawmakers.
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Yariv Levin, the Likud faction chairman and opposition whip, expressed satisfaction over the error that resulted in the defeat of the bill.
“It’s an unprecedented achievement for us. Only a month has gone by since this fraudulent government was formed and time after time we have succeeded in blocking government legislation,” he said. “We’ll continue to do everything in power to oppose this wicked government, until it collapses.”