The clash between Yossi Paritzky and Shinui, the party that
gave him the boot, remains on the Knesset agenda and
continues to make waves in the corridors of the Knesset.
Recently the two sides met for the who-knows-which time in
the House Committee to discuss Paritzky's demand to cast
Shinui as the party that split away from him, which would
grant him the status of a one-man party with all that entails
— including a monthly budget of NIS 100,000
($25,000).
Paritzky has found himself in a situation that makes it
nearly impossible for him to function in the Knesset.
According to regulations almost all of the tracks for Knesset
activity are through party affiliation. Agenda motions can
only be submitted through a party and each party is allocated
a quota based on its size. The same applies in the case of
questions, legislative proposals, participation in party
meeting in the plenum, etc. Appointments to the various
committees is also determined according to party
membership.
From the moment Shinui decided to part ways with Paritzky it
has not allowed him to use any of their quotas, leaving the
lone MK virtually paralyzed in the Knesset. The two sides
have tried to come to an understanding many times, but every
time Paritzky demanded that in the framework of receiving
recognition as a one-man party he also receive funding from
the parties — funding that would be taken at Shinui's
expense — the negotiations stalled.
The House Committee addressed the problems months ago, saying
that a party cannot be allowed to prevent one of its members
from operating as a member of the Knesset. But since then no
progress was made until recently when Committee Chairman MK
Roni Bar-On issued an ultimatum: either Shinui straighten out
the matter with Paritzky or else the Knesset would legislate
a special law to allow him to set up a one-man party.
According to the current law, MKs seeking to split from their
party must constitute at least one-third of the party. Thus
one MK cannot split from his 14 colleagues, but they can
split from him. Yet in this case Shinui is unwilling to split
from Paritzky unless he foregoes his demand for party
funding.
Meanwhile a decision was issued by State Prosecutor Eran
Shendar to close the legal aspects of the Paritzky case
entirely. Unable to suppress his glee Paritzky sent a letter
to Tommy Lapid, the chairman of his former party with a candy
attached—"to take away some of the bitter taste."
Following the decision, Lapid reacted by saying, "Shinui
apologizes to the public for bringing a man like Paritzky
into the Knesset and hopes he will reach the [proper]
conclusions and leave the Knesset soon."
In his letter Paritzky wrote, "Regarding the `case' against
Avraham Poraz I have come away clean and pure. I assume it is
hard for you to deal with this determination after you tried
to sell to the public that I am a corrupt man suspected of
criminal activity. At first I thought you wanted to mislead
the public intentionally. I was afraid you intended to
continue to cast false suspicion of accepting bribery on me,
and in your typical way to continue misleading the public by
twisting the facts. But then I was reminded of your memory,
which betrays you constantly."
Paritzky printed the letter in a large font size with
vocalization marks "to allow you to read easily and to make
it understandable to you in a single reading."
Lapid versus Yishai
When Labor joined the coalition, Tommy Lapid replaced Shimon
Peres as opposition head based on a law that automatically
makes the chairman of the largest opposition party head of
the opposition unless more than half of the opposition MKs
sign a request to appoint another MK instead.
Shas Chairman Eli Yishai tried hard to obtain enough
signatures to secure the post for himself, but he fell one
short with 28 of the 56 members of the opposition. Now MKs
David Azoulai and Yisroel Eichler have tabled a proposal to
base the selection of opposition head on signatures alone.
This would tip the scales in Yishai's favor since the Arab
MKs would not back Lapid, preferring not to get involved in a
bid for power between Lapid and Yishai.
But in the future such a law could work to Shas' disadvantage
as well. If Shas becomes larger than Shinui, as it was in the
previous term, and once again finds itself in the opposition
Shinui might be able to obtain more signatures.
As a general rule in the Knesset it is ill-advised to change
a law because of a certain set of circumstances. Instead
every issue must be considered in terms of its long-term
effects.
