Amichai Shikli, who quit the Yamina party immediately after it formed a government with left-wing parties, was disqualified for running with the Likud party for the next Knesset by the chairman of the Central Elections Committee, Judge Yitzchak Amit, on Wednesday evening.
Amit based his decision on the fact that Shikli didn’t resign from the Knesset immediately after resigning from Yamina, which he says is required by Israel’s Basic Laws in order for the candidate to run for the next Knesset as part of a party that was in the outgoing Knesset.
Amit wrote: “Even after the Knesset committee determined that Shikli should be considered as someone who resigned from Yamina, he continued to act against the party. In this state of affairs, if we recognize him as someone who resigned ‘close to the time’ that he left his party, this will eliminate all significance to section 6a of the Knesset’s Basic Law and its underlying purpose, thereby harming the public’s trust in the ‘rules of the game,’ as established by the Knesset itself.”
The hearing was held in response to a petition submitted by the far-left Meretz party. Meretz also filed a petition against the candidacy of ex-Yamina MK Idit Silman, whose resignation from the coalition led to its downfall. However, Amit approved her candidacy to run for the next Knesset as part of the Likud party since she resigned from the government soon after leaving the party.
The Likud intends to petition the Supreme Court against the decision: “The Likud sees this absurd decision as a serious blow to democracy – we will appeal to the Supreme Court,” the party said in a statement.
The Supreme Court almost always overturns the decisions of the Central Elections Committee.
Shikli had previously appealed the Knesset committee’s decision to declare him as a defector from Yamina in the Jerusalem District Court. The court proposed a compromise as part of which Shikli would retire from the Knesset and be able to run in the elections – subject to the approval of the chairman of the Central Elections Committee.
Shikli agreed to the compromise and resigned from the Knesset in July but Amit now rejected the compromise that was accepted in the district court.
Political commentator Amit Segal commented on the absurdity of the fact that the only Yamina member who stuck to his party’s principles is considered the rebel.
“The fact that the only person who maintained the principles of Yamina is declared as a defector, while all the defectors who resigned from parties due to their own political interests can run to their heart’s content is an unparalleled distortion of justice,” he said.
בושה! pic.twitter.com/iUC0E1NOY9
— אריאל אלחרר (@ariel_elharar_) September 28, 2022
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
2 Responses
Nice piece of propaganda in that tweet.
Lying by omission is as deceitful as any other lie.
The vote to decide if Shikli can legitimately serve in the next Knesset was not the only election related vote that took place today.
Today the Central Election Committee also voted to disqualify the Arab Balad Party from running in the election, on the grounds that it opposed Israel’s definition as a Jewish state. Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid supported this. The Likud and Religious Zionists chose to step back and abstain.
Netanyahu and his cronies keep talking about the Arab parties as supporters of terrorism, but it’s all just talk. They openly display that they’re motivated only by their overblown egos and by political considerations. Nothing else is important to them.
Everyone already forgot that it was Netanyahu’s failure to support the “Judea and Samaria” law that brought down the government. The law has to be extended every five years or the status of Jewish residents in Yehuda and Shomron falls into chaos. Bibi instructed his Likud Party and other right-wing backers to vote against the extension to force a crisis in which he would replace Bennett. Ironic that he brought down the government and moved to push forward his own political future by showing his true colors and failing to support Israeli Jews living in the Land of Israel.
Today he showed his true colors again.
We are in how this game works. lapid voted because they’re aware this will take away votes from the potential ally
And the way the Central Committee has always worked when they’re to do something unpalatable like keeping one of the most principled members out of the knesset they have to balance the same day with some good pretence. Hardly anything new over here.
Nice Try golfer or should we assume you’re just naive