""A politician in a cloak": Shikley apologized for his remarks against the chairman of the Elections Committee

October 6, 2022   

The Supreme Court heard this evening (Thursday), in an expanded panel of 9 judges, an appeal filed by former MK Amichai Shikli against the decision of the chairman of the Central Elections Committee not to approve his candidacy on the Likud list for the 25th Knesset. During the hearing, Shikli asked to speak to the judges and those present in the courtroom, and apologized to the court for his statements after the Elections Committee's announcement of his disqualification, when he said "Yitzhak Amit - a politician in a cloak." He explained: "The intention was to pass criticism, some of it irrelevant, to the person, and I regret that part. I completely disapprove of the part of a retiring MK, it was intended to prevent a situation like Goldfarb's, who went from one side to the other. I stuck to the faction's position." Shikli added: "I don't know the legal ramblings, but when I stood before the court it was clear to me that there was a compromise here, and in light of the compromise I withdrew the petition, otherwise I would have contested independently. We are in a time order that does not allow a way out of this, and I relied completely on the district court ruling and the request to change the protocol was submitted after I resigned." Supreme Court President Esther Hayut responded: "That is not accurate, the Knesset's legal counsel says that you saw it before you submitted the protocol request" - and Shikli admitted that she was right. Hayut added: "Beyond that, amending the protocol is not a new request - it is just to correct." The request to disqualify Shikli's candidacy was submitted by the Meretz faction to the Central Elections Committee. The request argued that since the Knesset committee declared Shikli to have resigned, his candidacy should be disqualified.