Yisrael Beiteinu adopts separation between ministers and Knesset
Foreign Minister Lieberman's faction votes to change charter to force MKs to resign parliament when appointed to run ministry.
The change, following in the steps of Norwegian and American laws, was initiated by the chairman of the faction, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. According to the clause, a faction member appointed to lead a government ministry will, at the time of his swearing-in, submit his resignation from the Knesset.
Currently, ministers from all factions also serve as MKs, which leads to many plenum and committee sessions remaining relatively empty as the ministers have meetings and work outside of their legislative responsibilities.
Lieberman's decision serves to assure that whoever serves as a Yisrael Beiteinu MK will fulfill his parliamentary duties full-time. The new clause in the charter, however, will not apply to the person serving as faction chairman.
The specific clause was entered into the charter as a direct continuation to a governance law passed by the faction during the previous winter session, which raised the representation threshold and limited the number of government ministers to 18.
Yisrael Beiteinu officials believe that the new clause will help maintain separation between the authorities governing Israel.
Earlier in the day, Finance Minister Yair Lapid criticized the conduct of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an apparent lead-up to the possible elections. "I mean to tell the prime minister exactly what I intend to tell the public: We're here to work. We brought a social budget to the Knesset and it approved it. The government also approved the 0% VAT bill, which gives an opportunity to tens of thousands of young couples who got left behind on buying an apartment. The prime minister sat next to me, voted for both of these and committed to me to help pass both. I can't imagine political considerations will change his mind."
"We can't go on like this, we can't jam everything for political reasons. Elections will paralyze the market, force heavy costs on the economy, delay processes we started for the benefit of the public and freeze all of the ongoing plans. We can still fix things and work together for the public, which expects us to act responsibly. We weren't elected to serve interest groups and political interests, we don't have activists who could pressure us. All we want is to work with the entire government for the benefit of the citizens of Israel."
