Committee for Legislation canceled over Likud's foot-dragging
Bayit Yehudi withholds convening of Ministerial Committee for Legislation over Likud's obstruction of bill seeking to subject West Bank academic institutions to the Council for Higher Education.
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked will not convene the Ministerial Committee for Legislation next week, it was announced Friday.
This is in protest of the Likud delaying voting on the "Ariel University bill," which, if passed, will subject all academic institutions in the West Bank—such as Ariel University—to the Council for Higher Education.
Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Shaked announced this to the committee's members earlier this week.
The bill, promoted by MK Shuli Mualem (Bayit Yehudi) and considered by her party as one of their most important legislation currently bills currently on their agenda, is stuck in limbo because of Knesset House Committee Chairman Yoav Kish's (Likud) refusal to approve it.
Kish does so because of the lack of agreement on his proposal to reduce the legal presumption that the mother should receive full custody of their children in case of separation or divorce—which Mualem refuses to support.
Kish previously sought to abolish the law completely, but settled on setting the age of legal presumption at the age of two due to sweeping objection by most of the coalition factions.
Last week, tensions mounted over the crisis at a meeting of party leaders as an argument erupted between Prime Minister and Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu and Education Minister and Bayit Yehudi Chairman Naftali Bennett.
"This is a very important bill that needs to be passed and you have been holding it back for three weeks. This is not just some symbolic piece of legislation."
"Do not preach to me about Ariel University," Netanyahu retorted. "We (the Likud) built it."
Bennett then stormed out of the meeting and asked Shaked to dissolve the committee.
