Israel will continue to be in a national state of emergency for at least three months, after the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee approved the extension Tuesday. All of the committee’s members except for Meretz leader MK Zehava Gal-On approved the motion. Hadash has not representation at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

The national state of emergency has been extant since the country was founded in 1948, and is based on laws from the British Mandate for Palestine. It includes hundreds of orders covering security issues as well as civil and economic ones. A task force made up of Foreign Affairs and Defense and Law, Constitution and Justice Committee members is meant to reduce the number of such orders, following a 1999 High Court decision on the matter. The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee extended the state of emergency for three months, instead of the usual six months or a year, because the joint committee for the current Knesset has yet to be formed.