Supermarket bill ready for second, third Knesset readings
After being postponed once already amid coalition fears of inability to assemble majority needed to ram the controversial bill through, doubts cast once again after MK supporting bill expected not to attend vote after mother passes away.
The controversial bill was approved by the Knesset in early December in its first reading, with 59 Knesset members voting for the bill and 54 opposing it.
The readings are expected to constitute yet another test for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s precarious coalition that has recently been struggling to withstand the weight of threats made by its party leaders to bring it down over core legislative issues.
The vote, which was supposed to be held last Tuesday, was postponed for the following week as coalition leaders feared they would fail to gather enough votes to pass the bill.
Fears arose due to the absence of two lawmakers set to vote for it—Yehuda Glick (Likud) was mourning his wife who died on the morning of the vote, and Minister of Religious Services David Azulay (Shas) who was recovering from a medical operation.
But the timing of the vote comes in the midst of a particularly stormy political climate, not merely due to vociferous opposition that is expected to accompany the debate. On Sunday night, MK Motti Yogev’s (Bayit Yehudi) mother passed away and his expected absence as a result threatens to throw into doubt yet again the coalition’s ability to assemble its slender majority for ramming the bill through.
Deri attacked the opposition's refusal Monday to offset Glick's vote. "I heard about the opposition's unprecedented conduct—and I'm including Yisrael Beytenu in this—and am awed by the lack of humanity on display here, and indifference to people in their darkest hour," Deri said.
Vote offsetting is a common practice in the Israeli parliament, according to which a member of Knesset who cannot attend an important vote reaches an agreement with a lawmaker on the other side of the aisle that they would both not vote.
The coalition also crashed into other obstacles along the way to the readings, with government party members fiercely remonstrating against the bill.
Minister of Social Equality Gila Gamliel of the Likud party was one of those voicing her displeasure with the bill in a Ynet studio interview last week. "I truly hope the Haredi parties will see this week the error of their ways and the tragedy in passing this bill," she said.
Last week, the Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut city council amended a municipal bylaw that will allow for the operation of limited commerce on Shabbat, making it the third city to attempt to outmaneuver national legislation that would grant the interior minister the authority to cancel such bylaws.
