The Knesset House Committee voted 8-0 on Monday morning to advance a coalition bill to dissolve parliament, sending it to the plenum for a first reading later in the day.
“We submitted the bill to dissolve the Knesset on behalf of all the heads of the coalition factions, and we intend to reach an agreement on an [election] date with all the party leaders,” coalition whip Ofir Katz (Likud Party) said in a statement shared by the Knesset.
“We are all aware of the disagreements within the coalition, and at this point in time we have not yet reached an agreed-upon date,” said the lawmaker. “Therefore, for the time being, we have proposed a date range between Sept. 8 and Oct. 20. Once we reach an agreement on a specific date, we will amend it accordingly ahead of the second and third readings.”
The dissolution bill passed a preliminary reading 110-0 on May 20, sending it to the House Committee for consideration ahead of three additional plenary votes, though coalition lawmakers initially showed little urgency to dissolve parliament.
Sept. 1 and Sept. 15 are no longer under consideration as possible dates for the election, while Sept. 8 remains a possibility, Israel Hayom reported last week. Other dates that month are not feasible due to their proximity to the Jewish holidays.
In addition, there appear to be only three remaining possible dates in October: Oct. 13, Oct. 20 or Oct. 27—the latter being the deadline for holding elections.
The dissolution bill was submitted after Rabbi Dov Lando, a leading figure in the Jewish state’s Lithuanian Haredi community, earlier this month ordered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox coalition partners to “work toward dissolving the Knesset as soon as possible.”
Lando’s statement reportedly followed Netanyahu telling Haredi parties that there was currently no majority to pass legislation regulating the exemption of some yeshivah students from Israel Defense Forces service.
