Why distance voting remains distant for Israel - analysis

Netanyahu asked to examine issue with Knesset speaker

By GIL HOFFMAN
An example of what distance voting in the Knesset would look like (photo credit: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY MINISTER IZHAR SHAY)
An example of what distance voting in the Knesset would look like
(photo credit: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY MINISTER IZHAR SHAY)
In November 2018, Likud MK Sharren Haskel came to an urgent no-confidence vote in the Knesset connected to an IV against her doctor’s recommendations and fainted after the vote.
Thirteen years earlier, Kadima minister Eli Aflalo came to cast the deciding vote on the Gaza Strip withdrawal in a wheelchair, arriving by ambulance shortly after brain surgery.
Last week, Joint List MK Sami Abu Shehadeh contracted COVID-19 after attending mass memorial ceremonies without wearing a mask, and all significant votes in the Knesset plenum were canceled for at least a week.
Despite all these cases, Israel does not allow any voting in the Knesset plenum or committees for MKs who are not physically present.
According to a study by the Israel Democracy Institute’s Dr. Assaf Shapira and Avital Fridman, “distance voting” is permitted in the parliaments of the European Union, Belgium, Romania and Spain. Many more countries permit their parliament members to participate in parliamentary debates remotely.
Israel might have started going in that direction this week, when Yesh Atid MK Karin Elharar, who suffers from muscular dystrophy, was permitted by Knesset Law, Constitution and Justice Committee legal adviser Gur Bligh to address the committee from her home in Rishon Lezion.
But Elharar was still not permitted to vote from her home against the controversial Expanded Norwegian Law, which advanced by an 8 to 5 vote.
In March, Science and Technology Minister Izhar Shay (Blue and White) submitted a bill enabling distance voting in cases of emergency, including the next three months, due to the coronavirus crisis.
Shay asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to talk to Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin about the bill during Sunday’s cabinet meeting. Shay’s spokesman said Netanyahu had agreed, but Netanyahu’s spokesman said the prime minister did not respond to the request.
In rare agreement between Yesh Atid and Blue and White, Elharar also said distance voting should be allowed.
"In our current circumstances that are ever changing, the Knesset cannot be paralyzed and helpless for technical reasons," she said. "In 2020, technology is not the problem. The Knesset must fit itself to the coronavirus era and enable distance voting in order to continue serving the people."
Shapira, who directs the political reform program at the Israel Democracy Institute, said he supports enabling distance voting and explained why it has not been initiated yet.
“There are clear concerns about safeguarding data and preventing forgeries, and there is also healthy conservatism of the Knesset secretary and leadership,” Shapira said.
Shapira said the technology existed to make distance voting possible and that there were countries that had changed their directives during the current process.
He recalled that former Knesset legal adviser Nurit Elstein, who has since become a judge, was willing to consider voting in committees from afar. But he said Eyal Yinon, who just completed his term in the post and has not been replaced, was firmly against it.
Other countries permit voting by proxy or temporarily creating a smaller voting body in emergencies, but Shapira said those ideas were not a good fit here. He said solutions must be tailor made for the Knesset.
“It is clear now that there is a problem that must be resolved for emergencies, like a missile attack or an environmental disaster“ he said. “There needs to be flexibility. The ultimate solution is voting from afar in emergency situations, in Knesset committees and even the plenum.”


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