Knesset dispersal bill with March 16 election date advances

The Knesset House Committee decided on Wednesday by a ten to seven vote to advance the Knesset dispersal bill.

Blue and White and opposition MKs supported the bill and Likud, Shas and United Torah Judaism MKs voted against it.

The date proposed for the next election in the bill is March 16, Blue and White faction chairman Eitan Ginzburg, who chairs the House Committee revealed for the first time at a meeting of the committee, which is legislating the bill. 

Earlier, Yesh Atid MK Boaz Toporovsky said his faction, which sponsored the bill also supported that date. 

But Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin (Likud) said he would insist that the election date be reached by consensus of all factions in the parliament, as has traditionally happened in the past, and not imposed unprecedentedly by one side.

“This vote is a vote against the state,” Likud MK Shlomo Karhi told the committee.

The bill will be brought to a vote in its first reading in the Knesset plenum on Monday. Ginzburg hopes to pass the bill into law by the end of next week, which would give the Central Elections Committee the 90 days its head Orly Ades requested to prepare for the election.

But it is still possible that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz will decide against advancing the election, especially after Likud MK Gideon Sa’ar revealed on Tuesday that he is forming a new party that will take support away from both Likud and Blue and White.

Likud MK Uzi Dayan told the committee: “It is preferable to wait with the elections for a better time.”

Joint List MK Ahmad Tibi asked Ginzburg whether after Sa’ar’s decision the bill was still relevant. Ginzburg responded that as a veteran of the Knesset, Tibi could figure that out for himself.