Two other proposals to delay the plan were also rejected by similar margins.
Likud Ministers Danny Naveh and Yisrael Katz, who are known to oppose the disengagement plan, voted against the delay. Prime Minister Sharon had threatened to fire any minister who voted in favor.
Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu absented himself from the vote, prompting accusations of "cowardly behavior" on the part of his political nemesis and party colleague, Trade Minister Ehud Olmert.
Education Minister Limor Livnat, another opponent of the plan who has voted in its favor in order to avoid being fired, was not present at today's vote. She made sure, however, to employ the famous Knesset practice of "offseting" her absence with the absence of another MK who would have voted against the government and in favor of the postponement.
Deputy Agriculture Minister Gila Gamliel of the Likud, who opposes the government but refuses to vote against it at the cost of bringing down the government, also made sure to be away for the vote. She was in Austria two weeks ago, when the vote was first scheduled to be held, and is presently in Holland, from where she will return this evening. Both trips were for official Agriculture Ministry business.
Two Knesset Members - Avraham Ravitz and Moshe Gafni of the hareidi-religious Degel HaTorah party - abstained in the vote to delay the expulsion by a year, but supported MK Orlev's proposed three-month delay. Degel HaTorah announced this week that it was quitting the government.
The other hareidi party, Agudat Yisrael, was split: MK Meir Porush voted in favor of the delay, while the other two MKs abstained or were not present.
Orlev called upon the Knesset to agree to push off the disengagement for two reasons: The exacerbated security situation in Gaza, and the fear that Hamas will take control of Gaza. He asked the MKs to vote according to their conscience, and not based on party politics.
MK Yitzchak Levy, a resident of Kfar Maimon, took advantage of the short Knesset debate to ask Prime Minister Sharon to remove the siege from his hometown. "I'll say it three times, just like you do: Remove the siege, remove the siege, remove the siege!
"If the protest is not in Kfar Maimon, it will be somewhere else," Levy said. "As residents of the moshav, we were ashamed to see policemen and soldiers encompassing a Jewish town in the Land of Israel."
Addressing the Prime Minister, Levy said, "You said that there would be no disengagement under [terrorist] fire - but that's exactly what there is already now!...
If there would have been a national referendum [and the disengagement would have been approved], I can assure you that 80% of the demonstrators wouldn't be there today in Kfar Maimon."
Justice Minister Tzippy Livny (Likud), speaking for the government, "This proposal is not to delay the disengagement, but to cause its cancellation altogether." Addressing the anti-withdrawal camp's leadership, she said, "Don't join up with the residents of Gush Katif - liberate them!"
Among those supporting postponement were MKs of Shas, the National Religious Party, Religious Zionism Renewal, and the National Union. The Likud Party was split on the issue, as usual, with approximately a third of the 40 MKs voting to postpone the withdrawal/expulsion.
Likud Ministers Danny Naveh and Yisrael Katz, who are known to oppose the disengagement plan, voted against the delay. Prime Minister Sharon had threatened to fire any minister who voted in favor.
Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu absented himself from the vote, prompting accusations of "cowardly behavior" on the part of his political nemesis and party colleague, Trade Minister Ehud Olmert.
Education Minister Limor Livnat, another opponent of the plan who has voted in its favor in order to avoid being fired, was not present at today's vote. She made sure, however, to employ the famous Knesset practice of "offseting" her absence with the absence of another MK who would have voted against the government and in favor of the postponement.
Deputy Agriculture Minister Gila Gamliel of the Likud, who opposes the government but refuses to vote against it at the cost of bringing down the government, also made sure to be away for the vote. She was in Austria two weeks ago, when the vote was first scheduled to be held, and is presently in Holland, from where she will return this evening. Both trips were for official Agriculture Ministry business.
Two Knesset Members - Avraham Ravitz and Moshe Gafni of the hareidi-religious Degel HaTorah party - abstained in the vote to delay the expulsion by a year, but supported MK Orlev's proposed three-month delay. Degel HaTorah announced this week that it was quitting the government.
The other hareidi party, Agudat Yisrael, was split: MK Meir Porush voted in favor of the delay, while the other two MKs abstained or were not present.
Orlev called upon the Knesset to agree to push off the disengagement for two reasons: The exacerbated security situation in Gaza, and the fear that Hamas will take control of Gaza. He asked the MKs to vote according to their conscience, and not based on party politics.
MK Yitzchak Levy, a resident of Kfar Maimon, took advantage of the short Knesset debate to ask Prime Minister Sharon to remove the siege from his hometown. "I'll say it three times, just like you do: Remove the siege, remove the siege, remove the siege!
"If the protest is not in Kfar Maimon, it will be somewhere else," Levy said. "As residents of the moshav, we were ashamed to see policemen and soldiers encompassing a Jewish town in the Land of Israel."
Addressing the Prime Minister, Levy said, "You said that there would be no disengagement under [terrorist] fire - but that's exactly what there is already now!...
If there would have been a national referendum [and the disengagement would have been approved], I can assure you that 80% of the demonstrators wouldn't be there today in Kfar Maimon."
Justice Minister Tzippy Livny (Likud), speaking for the government, "This proposal is not to delay the disengagement, but to cause its cancellation altogether." Addressing the anti-withdrawal camp's leadership, she said, "Don't join up with the residents of Gush Katif - liberate them!"
Among those supporting postponement were MKs of Shas, the National Religious Party, Religious Zionism Renewal, and the National Union. The Likud Party was split on the issue, as usual, with approximately a third of the 40 MKs voting to postpone the withdrawal/expulsion.