Knesset returns for short-lived session

Debates over conscription for haredim (ultra-Orthodox) and conversion are expected to result in early elections, which are likely to be initiated in November following the municipal elections.

By GIL HOFFMAN
Updated: OCTOBER 15, 2018 00:47
The Knesset in session: The legislature is going to be working overtime. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
The Knesset in session: The legislature is going to be working overtime.
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
The Knesset will return from its extended summer and holiday recess Monday amid speculation that the parliament will be dispersed in only a month.
Debates over conscription for haredim (ultra-Orthodox) and conversion are expected to result in early elections, which are likely to be initiated in November following the municipal elections.
President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, opposition leader Tzipi Livni and Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein will address the festive opening of the Knesset’s winter session on Monday. There will then be no-confidence votes proposed by the Zionist Union, Meretz and the Joint List.
New Joint List MK Nivin Abu Rahmon of Balad, who entered the Knesset in place of former MK Youssef Atauna, will be sworn in. Zionist Union MK Zoheir Bahloul is expected to resign on Tuesday, and he will be replaced by the next candidate on the party’s list, former MK Moshe Mizrahi.
A memorial session will be held in memory of recently departed MKs Avi Duan (Kadima) and Uri Avnery (Ha-olam Hazeh and Meri parties, 1965-1973).
Besides the conscription and conversion bills, controversial legislation expected to be debated before the Knesset disperses includes a Nation-State bill for the Druze proposed by Zionist Union MK Saleh Sa’ad; a bill making the Declaration of Independence into law, proposed by Livni; and a bill expanding eligibility for state-supported surrogacy to include single men and gay couples.
Yisrael Beytenu still hopes to pass its “death penalty for terrorists” bill. Bayit Yehudi wants to pass a bill enabling ministers to select their own legal advisers.
The Ministerial Committee on Legislation rejected a bill sponsored by Meretz MK Michal Rozin that would have canceled annual memorial ceremonies for slain tourism minister Rehavam Ze’evi due to allegations of sexual harassment.
The committee advanced a bill proposed by Zionist Union MK Itzik Shmuli on Sunday that would help prevent elderly people from being victims of scams.
The ministers voted to postpone a bill proposed by Yisrael Beytenu MK Yulia Malinovski that would increase punishment for those who vandalize signs depicting images of women.
“I am saddened by this decision, and I cannot understand why the ministers did not pass such an important bill in the war against excluding images of women from being seen in public in Israel,” she said.