Monday 10.3.14 – The Knesset plenum session begins at 11 AM (instead of 4 PM) with the traditional practice of the weekly government no-confidence motions. All seven opposition parties (Labor, Shas, UTJ, Meretz, Hadash, Ra’am-Ta’al, Balad, Kadima) are expected to try to topple the government. All seven attempts are expected to fail. It is possible the opposition will give up on (one, more or all of) the no-confidence motions in order to devote more time to speeches on the Electoral Reform Bill.

Following the no-confidence motion votes, Constitution Committee Chairman David Rotem (Y.B.) will present two bills: An Amendment to the Basic Law: The government & an Amendment (#62) to the Elections to the Knesset Law. Together the two amendments are also known as “The Electoral Reform Bill” and many other names as well. The MKs discussions, including the opposition’s objections to the bill, have a time limit and the discussion must end by 10 AM the next day. At 10 AM (Tues) Chairman Rotem may give his rebuttal. Afterwards, the Knesset Plenum will vote on the two bills in their second and third readings.

Tuesday 11.3.14 – The voting that starts at 10 AM must finish by 1 PM. It is possible that the opposition MKs will remove their objections at some point and not vote for three straight hours. MK Ayelet Shaked (Bayit Yehudi) will present two pieces of legislation, an Amendment (#19) to the Defense Service Law and the (new and original) National-Civilian Service Bill. MK Shaked chaired the special committee that dealt with both bills known as “The Haredi Draft Bill”, which was discussed by the “The Shaked Committee”. The MKs discussions, including the opposition’s objections to the bill, have a time limit and the discussion must end by 10 AM the next day. At 10 AM (Wed) MK Shaked will give her rebuttable to the 21-hour discussion. Following Chairwoman Shaked’s rebuttal, the Knesset Plenum will vote on the two bills in their second and third readings.

Wedensday 12.3.13 – The voting that starts at 10 AM must finish by 11 AM. At 11 AM Ministers will answer urgent queries, new bills will be advanced in their preliminary readings (or rejected) and the U.K. Prime Minister will give his speech from the Knesset podium.

Following that the presentation and discussion of the Basic Law: National Referendum will begin. The voting on objections and the second & third readings must begin no later than 2 AM (Thurs), unless the Committee Chairman asks to give a rebuttal first. There is no time limit on how long the voting will last.

  • While discussing the three (or five if you want to get technical) bills, 75% of speech time will be given to the 52 opposition MKs and 25% to the 68 coalition MKs.
  • There are other very technical rules, but I’ll spare you those details.