A Knesset Member who swears allegiance to the Knesset is not the party's chairman's opinion • The law does not require any MK to support any resolution or law that his party initiates or promotes • Interpretation

Blue and White President MK Benny Gantz's threatening declaration of two MKs from his party, Yoaz Handel and Zvika Hauser, that they will have to resign from the Knesset if they do not vote for the establishment of the minority government with the participation of the joint list, indicates that the blue-and-white leader is not aware He or his party could force them to resign or deport them from the Knesset.

Gantz warns Netanyahu: "The State of Israel Rises Before You, and Blooms After You" // Photo: Shmuel Buchris

A Knesset member who has sworn allegiance to the Knesset, as the 120 MKs will do next Monday at the festive opening ceremony, is not the opinion of his party chairman. The law does not require any Knesset member to support any decision or law that his party initiates or promotes. In order to prevent any Knesset member from doing justice to himself, the Knesset introduced a discipline requiring the MKs in the coalition to vote in accordance with the decision of the coalition's management, but this practice is not enshrined in the law and is therefore not binding.

Past experience shows that MKs who dared to vote contrary to their faction's decision continued to serve in the Knesset, after being reprimanded and sometimes imposed various penalties, such as a prohibition on submitting bills and proposals for the agenda, a ban on the right to speak in plenary hearings, and even removal from membership in committees.

A prominent example of this was the Shas faction in 2010 when a sharp dispute erupted between the Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and the faction leaders and then MK Haim Amsalem. Shas was outraged because he gave media interviews in which he expressed his opposition to the Shas position. S. The Torah sages asked him to resign from the Knesset and called him "Amalek," but he did not comply. Shas confiscated him and narrowed his steps, but he continued to act in the Knesset as a lone Knesset member.

There were also quite a few instances where MKs quit their own initiative and formed an independent faction, such as MK Orly Levi-Abaxis, who in May 2016 left Israel our home and a year later was declared her retiree and served as a single member of the Knesset. Her situation now, since she surprised the political system with her decision to oppose the coalition based on the joint list, is better than it was in 2016 when Israel left our house, because it now heads a bridge faction, and as such, can split from the Labor Party and operate in the Knesset as an independent faction. .