Representatives of the coalition and opposition will meet at Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy’s office on Monday, in an effort to resolve their dispute over the make-up of Knesset committees by Monday night’s deadline.
Their remaining disputes are over the Knesset finance and economics committees, which legislate the state budget. The coalition is insisting on a two-seat majority on the Finance Committee, and a one-seat majority on the Economics Committee. The opposition is demanded an additional seat on both.
Last Monday, the High Court of Justice blasted opposition MKs from the Likud and Shas parties regarding their petition to invalidate the Knesset committee assignments, and imposed the Monday deadline.
Justice Uzi Vogelman went as far as to suggest that the opposition MKs were trying a form of a “coup” by refusing to negotiate with the government or show up at Knesset hearings, but instead were hoping the judicial branch would bail them out.
The two sides have been fighting for two months, and the opposition as a whole has boycotted much of the Knesset’s committee work in protest.
If an agreement is reached on Monday, it will have to be passed immediately, because the Knesset is going into an extended summer and holiday recess on Tuesday. No one will be allowed in the building in the first part of the recess, except for maintenance workers.
Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.