The Labor Party is irate at its three top-ranking members who
left the party for Kadima: Shimon Peres, Chaim Ramon and
Dahlia Itzik. All three were die-hard Laborites and ministers
representing the party; one of them even served as party
chairman for many years and as prime minister on two
occasions. They were from the party's upper echelon, making
the pain — and the desire for revenge — even
greater.
Now the Labor Party has been working on a plan to knock
Peres, Ramon and Itzik off Kadima's Knesset list based on the
Fundamental Knesset Law and a clause legislated over 15 years
ago to prevent party hopping following a well-known maneuver
by none other than . . . Shimon Peres.
The clause, commonly referred to as the Kalantar Clause, got
its nickname from Rachamim Kalantar, who in 1955 was chosen
to represent the NRP on the Jerusalem City Council but
remained in the governing municipal coalition even after his
party decided to resign.
We can expect to see a stiff legal confrontation between the
threesome and their former party, a confrontation likely to
cause a big stir and to be decided only in the High Court.
The law states that an MK who did not resign from the Knesset
around the time he resigned from his party cannot vie for the
next Knesset on the list on which he appears in the outgoing
Knesset.
The idea behind the law is to prevent an MK from deriving
benefit — such as a spot on the list or a portfolio
— in exchange for his support in any vote, such as a no-
confidence vote. Thus someone who wants to support another
party is free to do so, but he should resign from the Knesset
around the time he announces his party resignation, thereby
restoring the Knesset seat to his original party before going
his own way.
Atty. Eldad Yaniv, Labor's legal advisor, has already
prepared a petition to be submitted to the chairman of the
Central Elections Committee, Supreme Court Judge Dorit
Beinish, should the former Laborites' names appear on
Kadima's Knesset list.
Peres, Ramon and Itzik did not resign from the Knesset upon
announcing their support for Kadima, which is tantamount to
resigning from Labor. This point goes undisputed. But Peres,
Ramon and Itzik will try to claim that their respective
announcements upon joining Kadima did not include a
resignation from the Labor Party, thus they actually remained
members of the Labor Party until the time of their
resignation from the Knesset. Since this claim makes no sense
it is unlikely to be accepted in any court of law.
The Central Elections Committee is comprised of
representatives from the various parties. Beinish has only
one vote, just like the dozens of other committee members.
Therefore the decision is certain to be based on politics
rather than law. It would definitely be conceivable for Labor
and the Likud to join forces to put a wrench in the Kadima
works by mustering a majority to disqualify Peres, Ramon and
Itzik, but they might not succeed, in which case the matter
would be decided by the High Court.
