Knesset advances government formation bill

Netanyahu, who missed a preliminary reading of the bill last week, came to the vote wearing a mask.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB, GIL HOFFMAN
Knesset plenum April 20, 2020 (photo credit: SHMULIK GROSSMAN)
Knesset plenum April 20, 2020
(photo credit: SHMULIK GROSSMAN)
The bill enabling the formation of the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White's Benny Gantz passed by a vote of 72 to 40 in its first reading in the Knesset plenum on Thursday.
Netanyahu, who missed a preliminary reading of the bill last week, came to the vote wearing a mask.
The vote is meant to allow the changes to the Basic Law that were set by the coalition agreement. In order for the rotation government to move forward, the bill will have to pass through a special committee and its final readings, which are expected to take place next Thursday.
Members of the new coalition said quickly passing the changes and endorsing the new government was critical to exit the current crises. The government has been in a more than 17-month-long stalemate and the country is still surfacing from the crisis caused by the coronavirus.
Opposition MKs slammed the deal as constitutionally problematic and putting cushy ministerial jobs over the public good.
"For a month, Netanyahu has been negotiating, and there is no word about the coronavirus in the coalition deal," Yesh Atid-Telem leader Yair Lapid said in the plenum. "The Israeli economy is coming apart, and he is busy with who will get which portfolio, who will appoint judges and who will be in charge of the state prosecutors, and small businesses will get nothing but unending bureaucracy."
Lapid hinted that his party could file a new petition to the High Court of Justice against the formation of the government due to the speed in which Likud and Blue and White are trying to pass a Basic Law. Former justice minister Ayelet Shaked, whose Yamina Party boycotted the vote due to a dispute with Netanyahu, also said the Basic Law was being passed too quickly to be legal.
Some 200 activists from the left-wing Black Flag movement protested outside the Knesset during the vote while practicing social distancing. They later protested near the Supreme Court.
"The bullying demonstrations of the extreme Left wearing black shirts and battle cries are similar to the protests of the Fascists," the Likud said.