JERUSALEM - The government approved Wednesday a plan by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to add three ministers and five deputy ministers to the government following Tuesday's budget victory, despite calls by Knesset members across the political spectrum to abandon the plan.
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| Knesset OK’s 2005 budget / By Ilan Marciano and Ynetnews |
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Knesset approves budget 58-36, with one abstention, last hurdle to pullout plan’s implementation. |
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Five Labor parliamentarians-- Colette Avital, Yuli Tamir, Amram Mitzna, Danny Yatom and Avraham Shochat-- have threatened to veto the measure when it comes to the Knesset for a vote scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
Likud Party
member Michael Eitan said that the move is "unnecessary", and criticized the move just hours after passing a budget that included deep cuts to the security and health budgets.
“The prime minister is cynically making wholesale appointments with no public value. (These appointments) only serve as a reward to those who acted against Likud positions.”
Eitan added that if the prime minister doesn’t give a convincing argument, he will urge his colleagues to vote against the proposal in the Knesset.
The proposed appointments include Ronnie Bar-On,
expected to be appointed to the post of Absorption Minister; Zeev Boim, the current Deputy Defense Minister will be appointed to the post of liaison between the cabinet and the Knesset.
Other appointments include Efraim Sneh (Labor), who is expected to be appointed to Minister Without Portfolio, and Matan Vilnai (Labor), who will take over the science portfolio. Likud members Gila Gamliel and Ruhama Avraham will become deputy ministers of agriculture and interior, respectively.
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