'Rebel' Feiglin barred from Knesset Education C'tee

Likud Beytenu MK has been voting against the coalition since PM, A-G banned him from going to Temple Mount.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Likud activist Moshe Feiglin at the Kotel 390 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Likud activist Moshe Feiglin at the Kotel 390
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Likud Beytenu removed MK Moshe Feiglin from the Knesset Education Committee on Tuesday night, as a result of his rebellion against the coalition because Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will not allow him to visit the Temple Mount.
Knesset House Committee chairman Tzachi Hanegbi (Likud Beytenu) announced in the Knesset plenum Tuesday night that coalition chairman Yariv Levin, also of Likud Beytenu, will replace Feiglin in the Education Committee.
“Israeli sovereignty on the Temple Mount as the heart of Jerusalem and the nation is more important to me than any job,” Feiglin said in response.
“As long as the prime minister continues to give in to the Wakf’s dictates and does not let me exercise my right as a citizen and MK to go up to the Temple Mount, I will continue to see myself as free from coalition discipline,” he added.
The Wakf Islamic trust manages the Temple Mount.
Earlier this month, Feiglin started a one-man rebellion against the coalition in protest of Netanyahu and Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein’s decision not to allow him on the Mount because of threats to public security.
As part of his revolt, Feiglin does not vote with the coalition.
Levin explained that it is his job as coalition chairman to make sure Likud and coalition stances are expressed in the parliamentary process.
“After only one week on the job, MK Feiglin decided to act as a one-man faction and not part of the party in which he was elected to the Knesset,” Levin said. “Therefore, unfortunately, I had to replace him in the Education Committee.”
“I’d be happy to cooperate with the coalition, of which I am a member, again and help it succeed when the Israeli government respects the Knesset’s sovereignty again. If it has no sovereignty, the Knesset has no real value,” Feiglin said, in reference to the system of checks and balances in the Israeli government.


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