On 16 Tammuz, the Knesset approved the makeup of a special
committee to prepare the proposed Draft Deferral Law for its
second and third reading. 37 MKs supported the appointments;
there were no negative votes and two abstained. The Special
Committee, comprised of representatives of fifteen parties in
the Knesset, is headed by the chairman of the Knesset
Committee, MK Salach Tarif (Yisrael Achat).
The Knesset has approved the following committee makeup:
Salach Tarif, Eli ben Menachem and Maxim Levi (Yisrael
Achat); Yuval Steinetz and Michael Eitan (Likud); Yitzhak
Cohen and Yair Peretz (Shas); Avshalom Vilan (Meretz); Roni
Milo (Mercaz); Tommy Lapid (Shinui); Rabbi Avrohom Ravitz
(UTJ); Chaim Druckman (Mafdal); Yuli Edelstein (Yisrael
B'Aliyah); Benny Alon (HaIchud HaLeumi); Muchamad Bracha
(Chadash).
It was also agreed that MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni would alternate
on a permanent basis with MK Yair Peretz from Shas.
A Knesset committee had rejected a petition filed by MK Roni
Milo (Mercaz) last week concerning the decision to set up a
special committee to prepare the Law for the Deferral of the
Draft of Yeshiva Students for its second and third readings.
Milo had claimed that the Foreign Affairs and Security
Committee should be the one to deliberate on this particular
law. He also tried to reverse a decision to appoint the
chairman of the Knesset Committee, MK Salach Tarif, as head
of the special committee, claiming that the chairman of the
Foreign Affairs and Security Committee should receive that
position.
MK Rabbi Gafni opposed Milo's appeal, claiming that the
decision to set up a special committee had been accepted by
the Knesset. It was inconceivable for Milo to suddenly wake
up and file an appeal, he noted. "Where were you all last
week?" Rabbi Gafni asked.
Rabbi Gafni also claimed that in the format in which it was
presented by the Government, the law concerns more than the
Foreign Affairs and Security Ministry alone. It includes
issues other than the draft. "We really wanted a law which
focuses only on draft deferrals of yeshiva students. But the
current law has additional clauses which we never requested --
pertaining to other committees -- such as the clause
regarding the `decision year' or that referring to civil
service which applies to the Labor and Welfare Committee. . .
. According to Knesset regulations, when such an issue
applicable to a number of committees arises, a special
committee has always been formed," Rabbi Gafni told Milo.
Milo's claims were rejected, as noted above, as the Knesset
approved appointment of the special committee to deal with
this issue.
