The Labor Party, which has been racked with internal dissension ever since the current government was formed, together with the coalition leadership, punished four Labor MKs on Monday for not voting the party-line in several votes, including no-confidence motions.
In response, Kadima, the leading opposition party, announced that it would allow the rebuked MKs to speak at its own expense.
Left-wing Labor is a member of the Likud-led coalition government, to the strong dismay of nearly half the party's MKs - some of whom do not feel obliged to vote in accordance with coalition discipline.
The six Laborites in question are MKs Yuli Tamir, Eitan Cabel, Ophir Pines, Amir Peretz, Shelly Yechimovitch and Daniel Ben-Simon. Though the latter two do not wish to be included in the “rebels’ camp,” because they do not want to split the party, they have at times voted against the party line as well. Several of them have now been informed that they will not be allowed to utilize the Knesset speaking time allotted to the Labor faction.
Worst hit was Amir Peretz, a former Labor Party chairman and Defense Minister, who was banned for a month from introducing legislation, asking for matters to be put on the Knesset agenda, and speaking on behalf of Labor.
MK Yochanan Plesner (Kadima), acting as the Kadima faction whip, issued a sharp statement against Labor and in defense of democracy. He said that Labor’s decision to prevent the four from speaking “is a shameful and anti-democratic one, designed simply to silence and humiliate [the four MKs]. Kadima will give those MKs a ‘parliamentary security net’ from its own quota, in order to enable them to continue their parliamentary activity as elected officials.”
The attempt to “intimidate and bully MKs by taking away their main work tools is a grave strike at the status of the Knesset and at their position as public representatives," Plesner said. "Knesset Members were not elected to be pawns of the Prime Minister and the coalition.”