‘Elkin law’ falls in embarrassment to gov’t after Speaker casts wrong vot

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The coalition suffered a humiliating setback on Thursday after the so-called “Elkin Law” was defeated in its third and final reading because Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy voted against it by accident.

The Knesset voted on the bill on Thursday morning after a marathon all-night session in the plenum in which numerous opposition reservations to the bill were rejected. 

But the final vote was 51-51, so the legislation was defeated. 

This was followed by a consultation with a Knesset legal adviser who determined that Levy’s vote could not count – and the law did not pass. 

The “Elkin Law” was designed to get Housing and Construction Minister Ze’ev Elkin onto the Selection Committee for Rabbinical Judges, following a clause in the coalition agreement between Elkin’s New Hope Party and Yesh Atid stipulating that the Housing Minister – now Elkin – would be appointed to the committee. 

Ultra-Orthodox MKs and leaders were jubilant at the defeat of the bill. 

United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni said that “the government which was established through deception and which sign coalition agreements which have no inheritance in the God of Israel does not have divine assistance.

Shas leader MK Arye Deri said that the opposition had defeated the law since it had followed its follows and received divine assistance for so doing. 

“I am so proud of the Shas MKs of a fight which we waged day and night against all the odds to topple this offensive rabbinical judges law, and we have merited divine assistance for it,” said Deri.

Despite several requests for comment, Elkin has not yet explained why he is so eager to be on the committee to the extent that legislation was advanced to facilitate the demand.

Committee members do have a significant power of patronage, with political actors interested in advancing specific rabbinical candidates eager to curry favor with members of the panel.

A law passed in 2013 required that at least one of the two ministers and one of the two MKs on the committee be women, which created problems for Elkin, since the chairman of the committee must be the religious services minister, currently Yamina MK Matan Kahana. 

Since Kahana and Elkin are both men, Elkin cannot claim his place on the committee under the current terms of the law. 

An initial version of the government bill, which passed its first reading last month, changed the 2013 law so that instead of guaranteeing spots on the committee for one female minister and one female MK, the bill stipulated that at least two of the four representatives from the Knesset and the government be women. 

This meant that Elkin could serve alongside Kahana, while the two female representatives could both be MKs.

The opposition denounced this change, saying it would mean ultra-Orthodox parties could not have a representative on the committee since they have no female MKs, and that male MKs were being excluded from the panel on the basis of gender, a position a Knesset legal adviser agreed with. 

So, a new version of the legislation was proposed to the Knesset committee on Monday, in which the number of members on the panel would be increased from 11 to 13, and include one new minister of any gender.

This would clear up a spot on the committee for Elkin, along with a second female rabbinical courts advocate who would be appointed by the Justice Minister, currently Elkin’s party leader Gideon Sa’ar. 



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