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Slew of Controversial Bills Await MKs as Knesset Begins Summer Session

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The Knesset returns to work Monday following a month-long break for the Passover holiday.

During the three-month summer session the parliament will address a laundry list of controversial legislation, including a Legislative Override measure that would give the Knesset to re-legislate laws that had been struck down by the High Court of Justice; a nation-state bill that would enshrine Israel’s Jewish character in law; a push by the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party to erase limits on IDF exemptions for haredi yeshiva students and a measure to require judges to consider traditional Jewish legal literature when deciding cases.

The legislature returns to work amid four ongoing police investigations surrounding Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister’s wife, Sara, former Coalition Whip MK David Bitan (Likud) and Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, for a slew of allegations including corruption, breach of public trust, misuse of public funds and attempting to trade legislation for favorable media coverage.

The summer session also begins under a residual cloud left by a stormy winter session that included several political crises that threatened to bring down the governing coalition in favor of early elections. Before breaking for Passover the government narrowly avoided collapse over the above-mentioned haredi move to excuse all ultra-Orthodox students from military service, a measure fiercely opposed by Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beteinu party.

Prior to that, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon’s Kulanu Party threatened to bolt the government over disagreements regarding the state budget, Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel threatened to “make problems” for Netanyahu if the latter did not streamline building permits for Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, and Netanyahu’s Likud Party clashed with Education Minister Naftali Bennett’s Jewish Home faction over a measure tabled by MK Dudi Amsallem to stymie corruption investigations of a sitting prime minister.

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked forced the Likud to shelve the latter measure in October, then embarrassing the Likud by bragging about “burying” the bill in the media, to which then-Coalition Chairman Bitan said “If the Jewish Home continues to claim that they buried the law, we will bring it back to the Ministerial Committee for Legislation within a week or two.”

The parliament’s summer session will begin with a vote on three opposition no-confidence measures at 4 pm, followed by a celebratory session in the Knesset plenum to celebrate the life of Zionist founding father Theodor Herzl at 6.

By: TPS Staff

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