Opposition leader and Yesh Atid Party chairman Yair Lapid on Monday called on coalition lawmakers to “come to their senses” and cancel the Knesset spring recess slated to begin this weekend due to the war in Gaza, despite him being among the most absent lawmakers from parliament last month.
The six-week parliamentary break, which is slated to run from April 7 to May 19, was approved last week by a Knesset committee despite vociferous objections by parties in both the opposition and the coalition.
“Today begins the last week of the Knesset before the recess. It’s hallucinatory that the Knesset is going on recess at a time like this,” Lapid wrote on X. “Hostages don’t have a break, fighters in Gaza don’t have a break.”
He added that his party “will fight until the last minute” to cancel the recess, adding that “it’s not too late for coalition members to come to their senses.”
Some families of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza have also called for the parliament to cancel its spring break.
An examination of the Knesset attendance sheet shows that Lapid is one of the least-present members of the Knesset.
According to the Zman Knesset site, since the beginning of March, Lapid has been present at the Knesset a total of 30 hours and 56 minutes, and is in 109th place out of 120 lawmakers on the attendance list, Arutz Sheva reported.
Last week, Lapid barely held on to his own party’s chairmanship, winning Yesh Atid’s first-ever leadership primary by 29 votes.
