At the end of a white night: The Knesset plenum approved the 'Smotrich-Deri Law' proposal on second and third reading this morning (Tuesday) - with a majority of 63 supporters against 55 opponents.
The move will allow Religious Zionist Chairman Bezalel Smotrich to serve as an additional minister in the Defense Ministry with extensive powers and areas of operation, and will qualify the appointment of Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri as a minister in the government despite his criminal conviction.
The proposal states that the restriction of a person's eligibility for appointment as a minister due to his conviction for an offense will only apply if that person is sentenced to actual imprisonment.
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It also states that in addition to the minister in charge of a ministry, the government, with the approval of the Knesset, may appoint an additional minister to the ministry, so that two ministers will serve in the same ministry at the same time. The "additional" minister is supposed to be the minister responsible for the areas of activity assigned to him, but at the same time he is supposed to act subordinate to the designated minister.
The bill was presented by the chairman of the special committee that discussed its preparation, MK Shlomo Kari, who attacked the members of the intended opposition: "The good of this country is not of interest to Lapid's soldiers. Be prepared for the thunder of the cannons of 'the end of democracy' and a host of expressions of mind engineering and gagging. Do not be afraid and do not be under him. Even if peace is established on our watch - the voice of a weak response will continue to be heard here. We will approve here the infrastructure for the establishment of the government and bring the State of Israel to the dawn of a new day.".
Before voting on the proposal in third reading, Minister Zeev Elkin, on behalf of the government, requested that the Knesset return the bill to the committee that prepared it, and that the Knesset decide on this by vote.
Minister Elkin's proposal was rejected in the plenary.
Afterwards, Deputy Minister Yoav Seglovitz asked whether any of the Knesset members had declared a conflict of interest - and Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin replied: "The issue is sticky. The situation is simple. It is clear that everyone can vote. And if someone had a conflict of interest, they declared it at the previous stage at the beginning of the legislation, then the declaration is valid and there is no need to repeat it. To the extent that someone thinks that the declaration should be repeated or re-declared, they have another opportunity, and if not, and I assume that is the case, we can move on to a vote on the third reading.".
After the vote and ahead of the government's swearing-in on Thursday at 11 a.m., the interim Knesset Speaker, MK Yariv Levin, announced his resignation ahead of his appointment as Minister of Justice.
The resignation will take effect on Thursday, when a new Knesset Speaker from the Likud party will be sworn in - with the leading candidates for the position being MKs Amir Ohana, Ofir Akunis and Yoav Kish.
