Bennett: We Expect PM, Kahlon, to Support Court Override Bill

Jewish Home expects Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to “maintain order” in his coalition and persuade Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and his Kulanu Party to support the High Court Override Law, approved by the Ministerial Law Committee for legislation on Sunday.

“At the committee meeting, all the ministers, including the well-known ‘radical’ ones, like [Kulanu’s] Yoav Galant, [Yisrael Beytenu’s] Sofa Landver, and all the rest supported this law unanimously,” Jewish Home said in a statement. This is the best solution for the problem of illegal migrants, as well as for many other issues. We expect the Prime Minister and Finance Minister to ensure that this law passes in the Knesset, or to produce another solution. We will be happy to support any solution to the problem of the illegal migrants.”

The law will allow the Knesset to override High Court vetoes of laws passed by the Knesset – if 61 MKs vote in favor of the override. According to Bennett, the law is a compromise that should satisfy both those opposed to a Knesset law that would prevent the court from overruling the Knesset altogether, and those who do not want to see any change in the current system, under which the Knesset must devise new legislation if the court rejects a specific measure.

Among the first court rulings that Bennett and others expect to be overturned by the law are those that have canceled all the government solutions to removing the tens of thousands of illegal African workers currently in Israel.

The next step for the bill will be presenting it to the Knesset for a vote on its first reading, which is set for Wednesday. Analysts said that it was likely, however, that Bennett and Shaked would seek to postpone this vote, as several key players they are relying on to promote the bill among coalition members – including Netanyahu himself, as well as Yerushalayim and Diaspora Affairs Minister Ze’ev Elkin, will be in Moscow, conducting talks with President Vladimir Putin.

A report in Haaretz Monday said that sources in the party said they would be willing to postpone the vote in order to develop a version of the bill that will be acceptable to Kahlon.