T. Belman. You may want to compare how Arutz Sheva covered the story.
Shouting match in Knesset as ‘Electricity Law’ passes final vote
The lands is question are not zoned residential and thus no permits are issued. But there is another problem. Residential zoning in the south requires small lots in order to concentrate the communities. The Bedouin build illegally on land many times larger. Thus their illegal communities eat up more land then is permitted by law and it is more expensive to provide these illegal communities with roads etc.
Put forward by Mansour Abbas’ United Arab List, the bill is primarily aimed at helping that party’s constituents, many of whom live in illegally built homes in the Negev that are not connected to Israel’s national grid
By Noa Shpigel, HAARETZ
A government-backed bill to allow homes constructed without permits to be connected to the electrical grid passed a Knesset vote on Wednesday, despite vocal resistance from the opposition.
Put forward by Mansour Abbas’ United Arab List, the bill is primarily aimed at helping that party’s constituents, many of whom live in illegally built homes in the Negev that are not connected to the national grid. The bill’s explanatory notes say it will help “tens of thousands of households” whose lack of electricity denies them “a decent standard of living suitable to the Israel of 2021.”
The vote passed with 61 votes and favor and with no votes against it, as the opposition chose to boycott the vote. Three Joint List lawmakers abstained.
During the discussions, the chairman of the Knesset Interior Committee, Walid Taha of the United Arab List, gave a long speech entirely in Arabic. Likud Knesset members lashed out at him, claiming that they do not understand. MK Shlomo Karhi, for instance, shouted at him: “Keep speaking in Arabic, so they can see who took over the country.”
Miki Zohar also heckled: “You’re lording over us in Arabic. You forgot that this is the Israeli parliament. After this, it’ll turn on you.”
Likud MK Avi Dichter told Taha that if he were a decent person, he would give his speech in Arabic and then translate it into Hebrew. Taha responded that it is their problem that they had not learned Arabic. At that point, United Arab List chairman Mansour Abbas, who ran the discussion, intervened and requested that Taha give his speech in Hebrew.
An argument also broke out between Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and members of the opposition, who claimed that Bennett does not support the settlement outpost movement. The prime minister got up from his seat, approached the opposition bench and told them that he does more for it than they do. He also reminded them that the leader of the opposition, MK Benjamin Netanyahu, was the one who supported Israel’s evacuation of the Gaza Strip settlements. At this point, Netanyahu arose and distanced himself from the verbal brawl.
- Dispute over connecting unrecognized Arab homes to electricity threatens Israeli coalition
- Israeli gov’t reaches compromise on bill providing energy to unrecognized Arab homes
- Israel can help its poorest citizens – and the planet – with green energy
After the discussion, Bennett released a statement in which he called the opposition “bullies,” and said: “We will not capitulate to bullying that is directed by the head of the opposition, who is fed up with the rules of democracy and sows chaos. Netanyahu, who voted for the Gaza disengagement and [Likud MK Miri] Regev, who acted as its spokesperson, will not preach morality to me. They will continue shouting, and we will continue doing.”
The bill sparked a fierce disagreement last month between the United Arab List and Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, threatening the stability of Israel’s governing coalition and sparking tremendous outrage among the United Arab List, who view the law as a flagship issue for their voters, primarily Arab communities in the south.
After a lengthy negotiation between the two sides, a compromise was reached. The law created a crisis within the Israeli ruling coalition over the past months, mostly because of disagreements between Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked and the United Arab List.
The vote was fast-tracked through the Knesset, and in response, all opposition parties, except the Arab-majority Joint List, said Tuesday that they would be boycotting the debate on the United Arab List-sponsored bill, but eventually they did not.
UAL member Walid Taha said that Shaked is “hostile to the law and has tried from the outset to thwart it.” He demanded that she be stripped of her authority to advance the bill and that it be passed in a quick procedure.
So the question always has been if memory serves me, were the financial reforms just a smokescreen (would they have passed anyway) for Bibi. He seemed to be double talking at the time and at first did not have the courage to resign and NOT VOTE for Retreat.
Then he tried to have his cake and eat to by voting for the Retreat and then resigning when it did not matter.
I was not in his shoes so I will not judge him. I was dead opposed to the Retreat and predicted its horrible outcome (as did many others). I was glad when Bibi resigned.
@Sebastien
Well, you can judge as you see best, and personally, I recall at the time being quite furious about his remaining in the govt stating something similar to your own words, actually.
Still, in his defense, Israel is an economic powerhouse today because of Bibi’s economic reforms. Last year, Israel held the strongest currency in the world and that was a testament to his reforms.
Had he resigned, no one else would have pursued them, his replacement was Olmert, if I am not mistaken. These reforms revolutionized the Israeli economy. Still, economy over national sovereignty. Seems a simple question to answer, but recall that had he left before his reforms were in place, nothing would have changed regarding the disengagement – the left would have still supported it and the measure would have carried without him, but the economic reforms would not have.
Israel is greatly in his debt today for those reforms, which changed the entire economic framework in Israel, giving her a great deal of importance in international finance. Had he waited, these reforms would likely not have taken place til at least when he was PM 5yrs later, and then he would have needed to choose to spend his political capital of 2009 towards enacting these reforms while he was combating Obama and at the height of his power, and later engaging against the JPOA. So, just some context.
@Peloni1986
Sounds like a judenrat-style defense. Mistake? Giving guns, a piece of Israel, and governmental authority, to antisemitic terrorists, and terrorists who were on the edge of bankruptcy, at that? Bringing them all the way from Tunisia! And, wow, these must have been some incredible banking reforms. And, they must have been so unable to wait! I can’t wrap my brain around such stupidity with such predictable consequences or is it cupidity?
@Sebastien
In an interview with Carolyn Glick, he stated that he stayed within the govt to do two things:
1. Improve the manner and details of the withdrawal
2. Implement the banking reforms that came to significantly improved Israel’s finances over the past 20 years.
Carolyn interviewed Bibi in a lenghty conversation and this was raised:
He had threatened in late 2004 to resign when many others did, but stayed within the govt, unable to block the policy he could not stop and continued to enact the banking reforms. Sharon stated that any minister who voted against the disengagement would be fired. Of six allies against within the govt against Sharon’s plan of disengagement, four including Bibi and Katz decided at the last minute to vote in favor of the bill, while two, including Landau, voted against it – these latter two were both relieved of their positions. The bill passed with 67 votes, including all the Left and some of the Right including Bibi.
Ten days before the engagement policy was to be implemented, and shortly after the interview with Carolyn, he resigned, determined not to remain in the Disengagement govt.
Sharon was Prime Minister then and Bibi was a cabinet minister, He voted along with the Likud but then resigned a short while later in opposition to the Gaza retreat.
Why he voted for it my guess ONLY because he was going along with the party until he did not any more.
A horrible mistake by him and complete betrayal of all he stood for and had said for years by Sharon.
Is that true? Why did Bibi do that?
“Ten steps to the Right of Bibi”…