The Knesset voted Tuesday 23-5 to re-establish a parliamentary committee of investigation to look into alleged discrimination against Arabs with regard to employment in the public sector. The committee will be headed by MK Ahmed Tibi (Raam-Taal), who headed an identical committee in the previous Knesset.
According to MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union), the vote in favor of establishing the committee was a pre-planned parliamentary trick, agreed upon in advance between MK Tibi and the factions which make up the coalition – including Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu, which has stated that many Israeli Arab citizens are a disloyal element that endangers the country. The committee’s activity – under the chairmanship of former Arafat aide Tibi – is generally perceived as strengthening Arab citizens’ influence on government policies and their involvement in implementing them.
Not speculation
Eldad says the alleged deal between the coalition and Tibi is not speculation but something he knows to be true and which members of Likud, Shas, Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home), the Jewish Home and Kadima confirmed to him in private conversations.
The establishment of the committee was only made possible, he says, by a parliamentary trick: Likud, Shas, Israel Our Home, Kadima and the Jewish Home made sure that most of their MKs would not be present when the matter came up for a vote, thus saving them the embarrassment of having to vote in its favor. Labor MKs were given the right to vote as their individual conscience dictated – again increasing the chances that the committee would be established.
In addition, Eldad told Israel National News, the vote was scheduled in a manipulative way that helped Tibi succeed despite the seemingly hostile Knesset he faces.
MKs tricked
“The timing was very underhanded,” he explained. “Votes on subjects which are important to the coalition or which it contests are seldom held on Tuesdays. Usually, they are held on either Mondays or Wednesdays [the two other days of the Knesset work week]. There were two other items on the agenda, but they were moved to Wednesday. This created the impression among MKs that there was no reason for them to be present at the plenum. But the vote on establishing Tibi's committee was not moved to Wednesday, and there was no one there to oppose it."
Eldad stated that although he is absolutely certain that there was some kind of parliamentary deal between the coalition and Tibi, he does not know what Tibi is giving the coalition in return for “his” committee. He said that it is possible that Tibi will support the coalition on matters relating to the budget or even on decisions regarding Judea and Samaria that he would have otherwise opposed as being too 'moderate.'
MK Eldad stressed, however, that he was speculating on this point and that he does not have any concrete knowledge regarding Tibi’s side of the bargain.
“It is too bad that the coalition misled hundreds of thousands of naïve voters,” Eldad said.