The fifth session of 20th Knesset opens today. President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, and opposition chairperson MK Tzipi Livni (Zionist Union) will make the opening speeches in the plenum starting at 4:00 PM. Supreme Court President Esther Hayut will also attend the session.

The Knesset committee for setting the Knesset's working dates has not yet set a date for ending the winter session and beginning the summer session, which usually begins after the Passover holiday. The new session is beginning in an election atmosphere and with no formal date for concluding its work.

Talk of elections is ubiquitous. On the one hand, ministers and MKs realize that matters on which no progress was made in the past four years will not get anywhere now. On the other hand, legislation on important matters must be completed within a short time.

For example, the military draft bill, which has been on the Knesset agenda for decades, with ups and downs, is once again rearing its head. Last summer session, the bill passed its first reading with the support of Yesh Atid and opposed by United Torah Judaism and Shas. The Council of Torah Sages, which guides MKs Yaakov Litzman, Israel Eichler, and Menachem Moses (members of the Agudat Yisrael faction in the United Torah Judaism party), convened yesterday in order to decide how to vote on the conscription bill. An announcement by the Council stated that the bill should include recognition of the right to study Torah, but it is not clear whether a struggle will be waged against the bill. This announcement surprised many people in politics, but United Torah Judaism probably realizes that an election campaign based on this issue is liable to damage the party.

Speaking on Galei Tzahal today, former coalition chairperson David Bitan (Likud) said that the coalition would have to find a different reason for holding early elections. He also, however, could not make a clear commitment on a date and whether it would come during the winter session, i.e. by March 2019, or later. The latest legal date for elections is the first Tuesday in November 2019.

Also on the winter session agenda are the conversion bill according to the plan devised by former Minister of Justice Moshe Nissim, and the cinema bill proposed by the Ministry of Culture and Sport to restrict public financing for works that the ministry believes are inconsistent with the state's values.

Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked wants to promote and complete the bill for appointment of legal advisors. This bill, which was submitted following a cabinet decision to allow appointment of legal advisors for government ministries without a tender, is the subject of a petition brought before the High Court of Justice.

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on October 15, 2018

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