Tel Aviv [Israel], July 2 (ANI/TPS): Israel’s National Unity party submitted a bill on Tuesday to cancel the Knesset’s three-month summer recess because of the war.
“Going on a three-month recess at this time, while 120 hostages are still in the hands of Hamas, thousands are still displaced from their homes, and thousands of men and women of the security forces are being called to serve and are forced to leave their homes, their families and their workplaces harms government oversight during wartime as well as the public interest,” the opposition party said in a statement.
The party, led by Benny Gantz, argued that lawmakers are currently holding “critical discussions” related to the army’s manpower, particularly conscription for yeshiva students, extending the service of active and reserve personnel, and the rehabilitation of northern communities after eight months of fighting.
The party said that taking a recess was not appropriate while soldiers are “not going on vacation.”
The bill comes on the heels of another opposition figure, MK Oded Forer of the Israel Beitenu party appealing to Knesset speaker Amir Ohana to cancel the recess.
The Knesset’s current session ends on July 28. Lawmakers are currently scheduled to return on October 27 after the week-long Sukkot holiday.
The last day of Sukkot, known as Simchat Torah, marks the one-year anniversary on the Hebrew calendar of Hamas’s October 7 attack. At least 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border. Of the 116 remaining hostages, more than 30 are believed dead.
The bill also comes against the backdrop of opposition leader Yair Lapid’s threat of the mass resignation of opposition MKs if the government fires Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.
At a faction meeting of Yesh Atid lawmakers on Monday, Lapid said Baharav-Miara’s dismissal would “put the legal revolution back on track.”
The next Attorney General would be appointed by Justice Minister Yariv Levin, the architect of a deeply controversial judicial overhaul. The now-suspended initiative sought to change the way judges are appointed and removed, give the Knesset the ability to override certain High Court rulings, change the way legal advisors are appointed to government ministries, and restrict judges’ use of the “reasonableness” standard.
Lapid called efforts to remove Baharav-Miara “an orchestrated campaign that comes directly from the Prime Minister’s Office.” (ANI/TPS)
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