Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded this evening (Wednesday) to the opposition leaders' announcement that the negotiations at the President's Residence will not continue until the judicial selection committee is fully established.
"Today it finally became clear that Gantz and Lapid were looking for any way to blow up the talks. Three months ago they said that if we just froze the legislation they would enter into negotiations. We froze them and they did not enter into real negotiations. They rejected every proposal, even the most minimal, that our representatives brought at the President's Residence," Netanyahu said.
"Today they did something new. Yesterday they said that if their representative was not elected to the committee for appointing judges they would blow up the talks. But their representative was elected and they still blew up the talks. Gantz and Lapid do not want real negotiations. I assure the citizens of Israel that unlike them we will act responsibly for the sake of our country," the Prime Minister added.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said before that "the fact that some Likud members voted against the coalition's position is very troubling and raises a big question mark as to whether all Likud members are committed to the judicial reforms."
"In light of this, I call on my friends Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, and Constitution Committee Chairman MK Simcha Rothman to immediately bring to a vote in the second and third reading the law to change the composition of the judicial selection committee, and in an open vote we will see whether the entire Likud is committed to the right or not," said Ben-Gvir.
MK Karin Elharrar (Yesh Atid) was elected tonight as the opposition representative in the judicial selection committee. 58 MKs voted in favor of Elharrar's candidacy, and 56 voted to oppose him
Four members of the coalition voted in favor of Elharrar's candidacy - despite the Prime Minister's order that coalition members oppose all candidates to ensure that a second vote would be held in the next 30 days..