A squabble broke out moments before Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett and Jewish Home faction head Yinon Magal decided to sanction fellow Jewish Home MK Motti Yogev, after he didn't follow coalition discipline on a controversial vote in the Knesset.
Yogev was sentenced to a three week suspension from the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and all its subcommittees, and bills proposed by Yogev will not be brought for a vote at the Ministerial Committee for Legislation until the end of the parliamentary session.
Additionally, should Yogev again vote against the coalition position, he will be permanently removed from the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
The harsh steps were taken after Yogev did not take part in a vote on an anti-parent bill, which was defeated 42 to 41. The bill would have granted social workers the power to supervise in minute detail the values upon which parents educate their children, and to ask courts to take away their parental rights if they deem that the parents are not respectful enough of their children's rights.
Arutz Sheva has learned that before the announcement on Yogev's punishment was published, he and Magal verbally clashed.
"You held up the entire faction," Magal accused, adding, "because of you my law won't pass."
In response, Yogev said he wasn't prepared for Magal to speak to him in that manner, at which Magal threatened, "you'll be severely punished for that."
Yogev fired back by threatening to tell the media how, in his words, Magal is not holding organized discussions for the Jewish Home faction, and that due to the lack of meetings there is confusion regarding bills.
Following the publication of the severe punishment, Bennett and Magal said that while the bill was not defeated due to Yogev's vote, they view with "supreme importance the unity of the coalition and the preservation of effective and positive cooperation that has taken place up till today."
In contrast to Jewish Home, the Likud party did not issue any sanctions against members who were absent from the vote, or those who voted against it including ministers Moshe Ya'alon and Chaim Katz, as well as deputy minister Ayoub Kara.