Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Tourism Minister Yariv Levin’s proposal to increase the Knesset’s limiting the number of laws passed by any legislator has been met with objection by the opposition on Sunday, February 4. The reform, reportedly presented to Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein (Likud) last week, aims to block what Shaked (Bayit Yehudi) and Levin (Likud) label an influx of private members’ bills that “are being used to draw attention to certain issues and not to fix a specific problem.”

The far-right government’s dream: a Knesset empty of lawmakers (Photo: Knesset)

“The inflation of legislation by MKs is like a bear hug,” Shaked said addressing the more conceptual aspect of the initiative. “The madness of legislation is not helpful for our democracy, it is against it. More laws mean more complication, regulation and binding our basic freedoms with metal chains.” According to the initiative, a Knesset member could submit up to five bills a year, whereas today there is no quota of submitting private bills by individual lawmakers. In addition, Knesset members would be able to raise only 15 bills to be discussed in the weekly Ministerial Committee for Legislation meetings rather than the current 30 to 45 bills. Furthermore, it was announced that the overall number of bills that could go to preliminary reading would be limited to 250 a year.

Hadash MK Dov Khenin (Joint List), a lawmaker known for submitting a high number of private members’ bills, said the legislation was part of a wider attack by the far-right government on the Knesset, joined the criticism: “First they attacked the NGOs, the media, the Left, the courts and the Arab citizens. Now they attack the Knesset. Democracy is getting in the way of the government and therefore they are acting to diminish it. Private bills in the Knesset is what pushed protective legislations for the downtrodden, the environment, human rights. But in the world of those who drink champagne and smoke cigars, no one cares.”