Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud party filed a response with the High Court of Justice opposing any repeat vote in the Knesset, arguing that it is “unacceptable that whoever is unhappy with the results of a secret ballot can cancel them.” The filing was submitted in the petition brought by MK Karin Elharrar and other petitioners.
Represented by attorneys Ilan Bombach and Shai Levi, Likud said it fully supports the Knesset speaker’s position that no second vote should be held on the disputed issue, and asked the court to reject the petition. The party argued that the speaker did not create a new rule when saying the process could be filmed, calling it an established practice in the Knesset, including during elections for state comptroller and in general Knesset elections.
The response says the voting process was not held against the Knesset legal adviser’s opinion, but rather under explicit prior understandings between the coalition and the opposition, and in light of the legal adviser’s own position that there was no prohibition as the petitioners claim. Likud also said circumstances have materially changed since the original vote, because one Knesset member resigned, so the current political composition is different.
According to the filing, those changes could affect the outcome independently of any self-filming by a few lawmakers. Likud accused the petitioners of trying to create a dangerous precedent that would allow a political side to repudiate agreements it joined simply because it dislikes the final result.
