Opposition MK says bill would force Arab parties out of Knesset
BY STUART WINER, TOI
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman have reportedly agreed to increase the electoral threshold for winning seats in the Knesset to 3.25 percent of the vote, a move that critics have labeled anti-Arab.
After months of discussion, Netanyahu and Liberman finally reached agreement on upping the vote threshold for parliament from 2% to 3.25%, which will force out smaller parties who do not gain a higher enough percentage of the vote, the Haaretz daily reported on Thursday.
Under the new rules, the country’s Arab parties, which regularly only slip by the 2% threshold by a nose, would need to either coalesce or risk losing representation in the Knesset.
MK Dov Khenin, from the Arab-Jewish Communist Hadash party, which garnered 2.99% in the last election, fiercely attacked the Netanyahu-Liberman deal to set the threshold at 3.25%.
“That special number was chosen specifically in order to stop parties supported by the Arab population from gaining entry to the Knesset,” he said, according to Israel National News. ”The dramatic increase in the threshold percentage will erect high walls around the political system and prevent the possibility of establishing and presenting new political forces.”
A governability bill sponsored by Leiberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party and the Yesh Atid party originally set the minimum level at 4% but this drew strong opposition from Justice Minister Tzipi Livni. Although the bill passed a July preliminary reading in the Knesset, the wrangling over reducing the threshold has held the entire bill up from a second and third reading ever since.
The current threshold of 2% of votes cast enabled 12 parties to enter the Knesset following the last election. The government’s planned increase could cut up to one-third of the parties from the Knesset, including all three parties that represent primarily the Arab sector.
According to the report, while Livni is still uncomfortable with the bill it is expected to be finalized in the coming weeks and then sent for a second and third reading before parliament.
@ NormanF:
Beg to differ Israel has very stable governments. Broad coalitions insure most voters are politically represented and it forces sometimes opposing Political views and streams to compromise out of narrow self interest. Majority mandates thus can be considered ruling majorities almost Euphemistically. The Likud with 20 mandates may have a pluralistic majority mandate but only with the support of other parties therefore their real mandate is however much coalition partners allow them.
In the absence of a true governing national constitution the plurality of many small parties is our active political checks and balances. The PM of Israel has near dictatorial powers I would not like to see them attain even more power through limiting the numbers of parties…..Not yet at least.
Israel would be as dysfunctional if the # of parties are reduced. The dysfunction derives mostly from the unaccoutability of our politicians to those who voted for them. It has little to nothing to do with the # of parties.
CuriousAmerican Said:
Natural demographic growth will give them 2 more mandates at least by the next elections cancelling any negatives to them by the new law.
The election after the next they will have over 10 seats in the Knesset. The Arabs will have a tougher time uniting like Marxists and Islamic parties. The Law will hurt the small leftist parties more than anyone else but the Arabs will never unite.
So sorry to disappoint and ruin your wet dream.
Precisely!
Actually, the Haredi parites will be hurt. If the Arab parties are forced to coalesce, they might do better.
CuriousAmerican Said:
Yes but Israel’s leftist politicians are full-time hypocrites.
Color me surprised.
Won’t it also kill Hasidic Parties as well?
The Arabs have to be idiots. If the threshold forces a coalition, the Arabs might become an even more formidable block. This bill might seriously do them a favor.
Actually, it is the small Haredi parties who will suffer the cut the most.
@ NormanF:
“The problem is not Israel has too few political parties but too many of them to allow the Jewish State to have an effective, accountable and stable government.”
Hear hear! I don’t seen anything wrong with the 5% German model, so 4% should be acceptable. Maybe in the next round of legislation.
Tzipi should Zip her mouth!
What’s the hubbub all about? Germany has done fine with a 5% threshold for decades and Russia recently had a 10% threshold, now its 7%. Tzipi Livni knows her own Hatnua party would never clear a higher threshold so out of political self-interest she is opposing a common sense reform. The problem is not Israel has too few political parties but too many of them to allow the Jewish State to have an effective, accountable and stable government.
Would it be unreasonable if the American Congress passed a bill forbidding elected American officials to Congress from having any Al Quada affiliation. I don’t think so. Is it unreasonable to try to limit or keep out a fifth column in our government What is the merit of this bill’s opposition if their only complaint is that it narrows the political spectrum. Do we really want to make it easy for anti-Israel anti-Hatikvah MK’s to get into the Knesset and have influence over what IS a Jewish State. The bill sounds like a very good idea