The Knesset House Committee decided yesterday to cut the lawmakers’ spring recess by a week. The MKs will take a month off for Pesach. The 18th Knesset was sworn in five weeks ago, and the legislature has been functioning only part-time since. The MKs will recess on April 1 and will be back on May 3. MK Moshe Gafni of Yahadus Hatorah-United Torah Judaism said that until a new government was formed, MKs didn’t have much to do. “No bill can be discussed… If there is no government, what do we do? What do we discuss? Shall we make the entire Knesset staff work at the Knesset during Pesach?” Gafni asked. He suggested bringing the decision to shorten the recess to another vote once a government was sworn in.MK Reuven Rivlin, the Likud’s candidate to become Knesset speaker, said the public would take it badly if the Knesset went on a long recess, as it had already been inactive for an extended period due to the election campaign.
MK Shlomo Molla (Kadima) supported cutting the recess, and suggested making it even shorter.
“We keep talking about the Knesset’s image. Long recesses are not sacred. I think we should go on recess two days ahead of Erev Pesach, and not two weeks before. We need to work harder and there should not be hidden unemployment in the Knesset. Why do we always need to ask for more vacations? Lets work,” Molla said.
MK Ophir Paz-Pines (Labor) said: “It is impossible to come out well from the discussion over the recesses. If we decide on a long recess, the Knesset’s image is damaged, but if we decide to cut the recess, the reporters get angry twice; once for not delivering a good story and again because it means they too will have to work an additional week,” Paz-Pines said.
{Yair Alpert-Matzav.com Israel/JPost}
