Knesset proceedings scaled back due to COVID-19

All Knesset employees were notified not to come to work at the Knesset on Thursday unless it was absolutely necessary.

By GIL HOFFMAN
An empty Knesset Plenum (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
An empty Knesset Plenum
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin was set to decide by Sunday morning whether the Knesset would meet this week after Joint List MK Sami Abu Shehadeh tested positive for the COVID-19 on Wednesday.
Levin and Knesset director-general Albert Sakharovich held marathon meetings with Health Ministry officials ahead of the decision.
All Knesset employees were notified not to come to work on Thursday unless it was absolutely necessary.
MKs were notified that all Knesset meetings and discussions on Thursday were canceled. Sakharovich initiated a full epidemiological investigation and said directives would be issued upon its conclusion.
The Knesset Law and Constitution Committee was set to legislate the final readings of the controversial Norwegian Law on Sunday. The Knesset Finance Committee and the Special Committee on Fighting the Coronavirus have meetings planned on the impact of the virus.
Cabinet Secretary Tzahi Braverman recommended that all members of Knesset test for coronavirus on Sunday. Braverman said tests would be available for the 34 ministers after Sunday’s cabinet meeting.
Arab Joint List chairman Ayman Odeh and three other Joint List MKs will enter quarantine after coming into contact with Abu Shehadeh, even though they tested negative for coronavirus on Thursday. That was why Odeh spoke via video to a Tel Aviv rally against applying sovereignty to areas in Judea and Samaria.
No other MKs are known to have tested positive since Abu Shehadeh’s diagnosis, though many have been tested. Abu Shehadeh is the second MK to contract COVID-19, after United Torah Judaism leader Ya’acov Litzman.