The Times of Israel liveblogged Wednesday’s events as they unfolded.
The US is seeking more information from Israel after the IDF announced that criminal charges would not be brought against an officer and a soldier over the 2022 death of an elderly Palestinian-American, who suffered a heart attack after being bound, gagged and abandoned at a construction site in the middle of winter.
“We’re seeking more information from the Israeli government. We’re going to talk to them directly about it,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller says when asked about the IDF probe closed yesterday.
“We want to engage with them further about the outcome of this investigation before making any further pronouncements,” he adds.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is set to meet tomorrow in Brussels with his American counterpart Lloyd Austin for talks expected to focus on Iran, according to Hebrew media.
“The meeting will be about Iran, Iran and Iran,” an Israeli official tells the Walla news site.
An unsourced Channel 13 news report says the meeting is being held in the Belgian capital because Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has barred ministers from visiting Washington until he’s invited to the White House.
In remarks to Israeli television, an unnamed Likud MK claims to have voted for opposition Yesh Atid MK Karine Elharrar to the Judicial Selection Committee.
“Netanyahu knew that she’d be chosen and wasn’t surprised by the result,” the lawmaker tells Channel 12 news. “We saved Netanyahu from Yariv Levin.”
“If Karine Elharrar wasn’t chosen, there would have been [another] Gallant incident here on steroids,” the MK adds, referring to mass protests that broke out in late March after Netanyahu announced he was firing his defense minister, a declaration he later retracted.
PITTSBURGH — A survivor of the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre says she saw her right arm “get blown open in two places” by a gunman and cried “Mommy” after her 97-year-old mother was shot and killed next to her in the nation’s deadliest attack on Jewish people.
Andrea Wedner is expected to be the government’s last witness as prosecutors wrap up their case against Robert Bowers, who burst into the Tree of Life synagogue building with a military-style rifle and other weaponry and opened fire, shooting anyone he could find.
Bowers killed 11 worshippers and injured seven others, including five police officers, in the 2018 attack. The 50-year-old truck driver is charged with 63 criminal counts, including hate crimes resulting in death and the obstruction of the free exercise of religion resulting in death. Some of the charges carry a potential death sentence.
Wedner tells jurors Shabbat services had started five or 10 minutes earlier when she heard a crashing sound in the building’s lobby, followed by gunfire. She says her mother, Rose Mallinger, asked her, “What do we do?”
Wedner says she had a “clear memory” of the gunman and his rifle.
“We were filled with terror — it was indescribable. We thought we were going to die,” she says.
Wedner called 911 and was on the line when she and her mother were shot. She testifies she checked her mother’s pulse and realized, “I knew she wouldn’t survive.” As SWAT officers entered the chapel, Wedner says, she kissed her fingers and touched them to her dead mother, cried “Mommy,” and stepped over another victim on her way out. She says she was the sole survivor in that section of the synagogue.
Her harrowing testimony caps a prosecution case in which other survivors also testified about the terror they felt that day, police officers recounted how they exchanged gunfire with Bowers and finally neutralized him, and jurors heard about Bowers’ toxic online presence in which he praised Hitler, espoused white supremacy and ranted incessantly against Jews.
The defense has acknowledged that Bowers was the gunman, but suggests he acted not out of religious hatred but rather a delusional belief that Jews were enabling genocide by helping immigrants settle in the United States.
Also testifying today is Pittsburgh SWAT Officer Timothy Matson, who was critically wounded while responding to the rampage.
Video shows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accompanying his wife Sara at Ben Gurion Airport, as she flies to London to be present as Hollywood mogul Arnon Milchan testifies remotely in the premier’s graft trial.
The flight came as the Knesset voted on the candidates for the Judicial Selection Committee, appointing Yesh Atid MK Karine Elharrar and rejecting Likud MK Tally Gotliv, who had refused to pull her candidacy and triggered Netanyahu’s attempt to force a fresh vote.
נתניהו מלווה את רעייתו בנתב"ג לטיסה ללונדון. @netanyahu pic.twitter.com/LQyEdFSM9w
— חדשות המוקד (@hamoked_il) June 14, 2023
Responding to opposition leaders’ decision to freeze talks with the coalition after today’s vote for the Judicial Selection Committee, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accuses Yesh Atid chief Yair Lapid and National Unity head Benny Gantz of wanting to torpedo the negotiations from the outset.
“Today it finally became clear that Gantz and Lapid looked for any way to blow up the talks,” Netanyahu says in a video statement, his first public remarks since the vote.
Netanyahu says opposition representatives to the talks at the President’s Residence “rejected every proposal — even the most limited” that the coalition put forward.
“Gantz and Lapid don’t want real negotiations,” he charges. “I promise you that unlike them, we’ll act responsibly for our country.”
After an opposition member was selected to the Judicial Selection Committee, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir calls for “immediately” passing legislation aimed at giving the coalition full control over the appointments of judges.
The bill was on the verge of being passed into law but was frozen in late-March to allow for judicial negotiations, amid major and growing public opposition.
“The fact that some Likud members voted against the coalition’s stance is very troubling and raises a big question mark if all Likud members are committed to the judicial reform,” Ben Gvir charges in a statement.
“In a public vote we’ll see if all Likud is committed to the right or not,” he adds, in reference to today’s vote being a secret ballot.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid cheers the selection of his Yesh Atid party’s MK Karine Elharrar to the Judicial Selection Committee.
While hailing this “good news,” he laments that the panel will not be able to meet until a second member if chosen after Likud MK Tally Gotliv was voted down as a candidate.
Gotliv had refused to pull her candidacy after all other coalition lawmakers did so as part of an effort by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to force a fresh vote for the panel’s representatives.
“Once Netanyahu was a fraud and strong. Today he’s a fraud and weak,” Lapid charges during a joint appearance with National Unity chief Benny Gantz.
Lapid adds: “Without a committee, there are no talks.”
Speaking after Lapid, Gantz says “there is no reason” to continue the judicial talks until another committee member is selected.
“What happened today is that the prime minister decided to go against the country,” Gantz says. “He tried and failed.”
He also hails the unknown coalition figures who voted for Elharrar, before tearing into Netanyahu.
“Netanyahu surrendered to extremists,” he says, adding the premier’s conduct “raises a major question mark about his judgement in critical matters.”
National Unity MK Gideon Sa’ar says representatives of the opposition party won’t take part in judicial negotiations with the coalition until a second lawmaker is elected to the Judicial Selections Committee.
“We must maintain the protest,” Sa’ar, a former justice minister, tells the Ynet news site. “I suggest not letting up the pressure. We won’t continue in the talks until the entire committee is chosen.”
The Knesset votes to approve opposition Yesh Atid MK Karine Elharrar to the Judicial Selections Committee while rejecting the candidacy of Likud MK Tally Gotliv, who refused coalition calls to drop out of the race as part of an effort by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to delay the selection of the panel’s two representatives.
After a vote count that lasted two hours, Elharrar won the support of 58 MKs, and was opposed by 56. Gotliv was backed by 15 MKs and opposed by 59. A total of 115 MKs cast votes. The result means that several members of the coalition voted for Elharrar.
Even before the results were announced, opposition MKs began congratulating Elharrar as rumors swirled that enough votes were cast in her favor.
The shock outcome marks a win for the opposition, which had conditioned the continuation of judicial overhaul talks on the selection of one of its members to the committee.
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid and National Unity chief Benny Gantz are due to address today’s political events later this evening.
It was not immediately clear how the coalition would react to the results, with another vote required within 30 days for the committee’s other member.
As the Knesset continues to wait for the results of the voting on candidates for the Judicial Selections Committee, some MKs are hinting at what may come in the aftermath of today’s vote.
“The result doesn’t matter but rather the fact that Netanyahu gave [his] word and violated it at the last moment,” opposition Yesh Atid MK Boaz Toporovsky tweets.
MK Tally Gotliv of Likud, who refused coalition entries to drop out of the race in a bid to force another vote, predicts opposition candidate Karine Elharrar will be selected, though it isn’t clear what she’s basing this assessment on as the counting of ballots continues.
“I hope I’m wrong,” she adds.
In a quick reversal, cabinet secretary Yossi Fuchs now tells Radio Galey Israel there “were no agreements” in the judicial reform talks, shortly after he said the opposition had agreed to Shas leader Aryeh Deri’s reinstatement as a government minister.
Asked if the negotiations are dead, Fuchs responds that he hopes not.
Cabinet secretary Yossi Fuchs asserts to the Kan public broadcaster that representatives for the opposition Yesh Atid and National Unity parties agreed to Shas chief Aryeh Deri’s return as a cabinet member, as part of the judicial negotiations at the President’s Residence.
“A complete lie,” says a spokesman for Yesh Atid.
National Unity similarly calls Fuchs’s claim “a pathetic lie.”
“The cabinet secretary should remember he’s a public servant and not a political activist who can spread fake news,” the party says in a statement.
Yisrael Beytenu party leader Avigdor Liberman, who has skipped the talks, pats himself on the back after saying earlier this week that Deri’s ministerial comeback was at the heart of an agreement to be unveiled today. No such deal has been announced.
“Just as I said, the only agreement reached at the President’s Residence was to add Aryeh Deri to the government’s ranks,” Liberman tweets.
Deri’s was forced to give up his government posts earlier this year after the High Court of Justice struck down the ultra-Orthodox party leader’s appointment to the cabinet over his past criminal convictions.
In separate remarks to the Ynet news site, Fuchs addresses the effort today to delay the selection of two Knesset members to the Judicial Selection Committee, which he says the coalition wants to replace.
“The widespread opinion in the opposition is that the committee needs to remain as is — frozen,” he charges.
The Knesset advances a bill that would criminalize incitement against Haredi Jews.
Sponsored by United Torah Judaism MKs Yaakov Asher and Yisrael Eichler, the bill clears its preliminary reading with 54 votes in favor and 34 against.
Police have put up barricades on Jerusalem’s Azza Street, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has an apartment, in apparent anticipation of a potential protest by judicial shakeup opponents.
Organizers of the anti-overhaul demonstrations have called for Israelis to rally in Tel Aviv if opposition candidate Karine Elharrar isn’t elected to the Judicial Selection Committee in today’s Knesset vote.
רחוב עזה בירושלים חסום לתנועה משעות הבוקר בגלל חשש למחאות פתע שיפרצו מול מעון רה"מ בשל ההצבעה על הרכב הוועדה לבחירת שופטים. תושב השכונה: "הזוי שמשתקים עורק מרכזי בעיר בגלל אירוע שעוד לא קרה"
צילום: יובל פרומר pic.twitter.com/dTnBPCnxvu
— Inbar Twizer ענבר טויזר (@inbartvizer) June 14, 2023
The Knesset has wrapped up voting on candidates for the Judicial Selection Committee, with results expected to be announced in around 30 minutes.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid and National Unity chief Benny Gantz announce they’ll hold a joint press conference once the results are announced.
The shekel is weakening and Israeli shares decline today amid investor concern that the government is pushing off a vote on the selection of lawmakers to sit on the judicial selection panel, seen central to efforts to reach a compromise on the contentious plans to weaken the country’s legal system.
The local currency weakens more than 2 percent in intraday trading and is trading around 3.63 against the greenback, down from the Bank of Israel representative exchange rate set at 3.5580 yesterday. The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange’s benchmark TA-125 index falls 0.5% and the TA-35 index of blue-chip companies slips about 0.4%. The TA index of the five largest banks is down 1.3% and the TA-Finance dropped 1.1%.
The Knesset began voting on the candidates for the Judicial Selection Committee, with only Likud MK Tally Gotliv from the coalition and Yesh Atid MK Karine Elharrar from the opposition remaining in the race after all other coalition contenders dropped out. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who opens the voting, has instructed the coalition to vote both candidates down, which would lead to a second round of voting in 30 days.
Following the move, opposition leader Yair Lapid accused Netanyahu of “causing” judicial overhaul negotiations to end. Meanwhile National Unity party leader Benny Gantz threatened that if the coalition moves ahead with its plan to push off a vote on the members of the Judicial Selection Committee his party will quit the ongoing judicial overhaul negotiations.
The shekel has been swinging from losses to gains around the developments on reaching a compromise on the proposed judicial overhaul. Last week, the shekel gained amid signs that the judicial changes would not be advanced as planned and amid cautious optimism that a compromise was being negotiated.
The Israel Defense Forces says it has wrapped up its probe into the death of a Palestinian toddler who was mistakenly shot by Israeli troops in the West Bank earlier this month.
According to the probe, on June 1 two Palestinian gunmen opened fire at the settlement of Neve Tzuf (also known as Halamish) and an adjacent military post, on the outskirts of the Palestinian village of Nabi Saleh.
Troops stationed at the post returned fire, but due to a misidentification, they shot a Palestinian father and child, the latter of whom later died.
The probe says that soldiers monitoring surveillance cameras identified the two gunmen and notified the troops at the post. The soldiers at the post heard the gunfire, but did not manage to locate the source, the probe says.
An officer who quickly reached the scene began to search the area for the gunmen who fled. The officer opened fire into the air, against army regulations, after spotting a suspicious vehicle, according to the probe.
The probe says that at the same time, one of the soldiers at a post near the Palestinian village spotted two figures entering a vehicle in the area, and wrongly thought it was the gunmen who had opened fire at the settlement.
The soldier asked for permission from his commander to open fire, and after receiving an okay, he fired several bullets at the car, resulting in the fatal injury of two-and-a-half-year-old Mohammed Tamimi. His father, Haitham Tamimi, was seriously injured.
“The sequence of events and the hearing of the officer’s gunfire during the searches of the village caused the soldier to believe that it was the gunfire of the fleeing terrorists,” the IDF says.
The two Palestinians reached the army post after a short while, and were treated by military medics and other medical forces. The toddler was rushed to an Israeli hospital by military helicopter, where he died several days later.
“The investigation revealed gaps in the command and control of the commanders in the incident, as well as in the reports and dialogue between the forces in the field which led to wrong decision-making,” the IDF says.
The officer who opened fire into the air against army protocol will be formally censured, the IDF says.
The probe’s findings have been handed to the Military Prosecutor’s Office for evaluation.
The chief of the IDF Central Command, Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fox, says he “regrets the harm to civilians and the death of the toddler. We will continue to learn and improve in order to precisely target terrorism.”
After putting out a joint statement with fellow coalition chiefs, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issues a video message urging the opposition not to end judicial overhaul negotiations over his effort to postpone the election of lawmakers to the panel that chooses judges.
“Stop the threats and excuses,” he says.
Netanyahu accuses the opposition of “rejecting every compromise proposal we bring” while calling for it to “enter into real talks and we’ll finally reach agreements.”
The shekel is down against the US dollar today, as the political maneuverings around the vote for the Judicial Selections Committee raise fresh uncertainty about the future of talks on the government’s far-reaching plans for changing the judiciary.
When trading opened this morning, one greenback fetched NIS 3.56, a figure that rose as high as NIS 3.65 during the day. The exchange rate currently stands at NIS 3.61.
The shekel has lost value relative to the euro, one of which currently can be exchanged for NIS 3.9, after starting today at NIS 3.84.
With only MKs Tally Gotliv and Karine Elharrar remaining on the ballot, it is possible that lawmakers will elect one, both, or neither of them to sit on the Judicial Selection Committee.
A source familiar with the matters tells ToI that Knesset bylaws permit a situation in which only one of the two lawmakers would be elected today, and the second open seat determined 30 days later.
Several opposition parties are backing Elharrar, who needs to win more “for” than “against” votes to be selected. But with the coalition holding a 64-seat majority, her selection is not assured.
The secret vote is still ongoing, with results expected later today.
Opposition MK Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party says it’ll vote in favor of appointing Likud MK Tally Gotliv to the Judicial Selections Committee, in an effort to torpedo Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s push to delay the appointment of two lawmakers to the panel.
“We are acting according to the tradition of two candidate,” the party says in a statement, meaning one for the coalition and one for the opposition. “We don’t dance to Netanyahu’s flute.”
But MK Benny Gantz’s opposition National Unity party announces it will only vote for candidate MK Karine Elharrar. A statement from the party says “we won’t play games and risk keeping MK Gotliv” as a committee member.
Coalition chiefs call on the opposition to continue negotiations on its overhaul plan that President Isaac Herzog is brokering, as they push to delay the selection of candidates to the Judicial Selections Committee in a move that opposition figures have warned could lead them to break off talks.
In a statement, coalition leaders blame MK Tally Gotliv of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party for not withdrawing her candidacy, claiming they therefore had “no choice” but to work to push off the appointment of two lawmakers to the panel for a month.
Noting that the opposition has said the negotiations are caput if the coalition selects two of its own to the committee rather than one coalition MK and one opposition MK as is customary, the coalition says: “This didn’t happen.”
“Coalition heads call on the opposition to stop setting ultimatums and excuses to blow up the talks,” the statement says.
Organizers of the ongoing protests against the government’s plans to overhaul the judiciary say they’ll protest in Tel Aviv tonight if opposition candidate Karine Elharrar isn’t elected to the Judicial Selections Committee.
“Netanyahu decided to destroy the country. Only the public can save Israel from a dark dictatorship,” they say in a statement.
The Knesset begins voting on the candidates for the Judicial Selection Panel, with only Likud MK Tally Gotliv from the coalition and Yesh Atid MK Karine Elharrar from the opposition remaining in the race after all other coalition contenders dropped out.
The coalition is expected to vote against both candidates, with Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana noting that if a majority opposes them, then voting will be held again in a month.
The vote is a secret ballot, with MKs voting one at a time. The results are expected to be announced in about two hours.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who opens the voting, has instructed the coalition to vote both candidates down, which would lead to a second round of voting in 30 days.
Likud MK Tally Gotliv reiterates that she will not quit her attempt to win a spot on the Judicial Selection Committee, and accuses officials in the Prime Minister’s Office of “leaking lies” about her.
“I’m not removing my candidacy,” Gotliv tweets. “I’m sorry to disappoint members of the Prime Minister’s Office who are leaking lies to the media in an attempt to harm me, because Netanyahu never screamed at me that I am harming the security of the state.”
Gotliv adds that Netanyahu “absolutely did not lose his temper. He did raise his voice and ask me to remove my candidacy and to rely on his wealth of experience, and other ministers also raised their voices. I am still a candidate.”
Netanyahu has instructed Likud MKs to have everyone drop out of the race and then to vote against the only remaining candidates, aiming to force a rescheduled vote in 30 days.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “causing” judicial overhaul negotiations to end, after Netanyahu instructed his Likud faction to try and force a delay in choosing lawmakers to serve on the Judicial Selection Committee.
Netanyahu “is crushing Israeli democracy, the economy, security and the unity of the people. He broke his commitment to the president and is causing the talks to end,” Lapid says in a statement.
Lapid further accuses the prime minister of having “lost control of his government” and being “a prisoner of extremists.”
National Unity also released a statement saying it would not engage in further negotiations at the President’s Residence if the two MKs are not chosen for the panel today.
National Unity party leader Benny Gantz says if the coalition moves ahead with its plan to push off a vote on the members of the Judicial Selection Committee then his party will quit the ongoing judicial overhaul negotiations.
“If the coalition thwarts today’s election for the Judicial Selection Committee, we will not sit for talks in the President’s Residence,” says the party in a stataement. “Anyone who cares about preserving democracy, stability and continuing dialogue to reach agreements needs to act responsibly today and allow the Judicial Selection Committee to be established.”
Likud lawmakers confirm to The Times of Israel that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told them during their party meeting to vote against all candidates, in hopes of forcing the Judicial Selection Committee staffing vote back by one month.
If only two candidates remain on the ballot, then lawmakers can vote “against” them and if a majority does so, a new vote will be held in 30 days.
Netanyahu is hoping to pressure all coalition MKs to withdraw from the ballot, leaving only Yesh Atid MK Karine Elharrar and Likud MK Tally Gotliv, who has said she will not withdraw no matter what.
The coalition is reportedly entertaining a plan to push off the vote on the Judicial Selection Committee by a month.
Firebrand Likud MK Tally Gotliv says she refused a proposal raised in a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this morning to pull all nominees for the Judicial Selection Committee and therefore effectively push off the vote by 30 days.
In an interview with Channel 12, Gotliv does not say who raised the idea, but says she refused to entertain it, since she has repeatedly said that she will not be pulling her candidacy no matter what.
If only two candidates remain, lawmakers are permitted to vote either “for” or “against” the choices. If at least one of the two candidates does not get a majority of “for” votes, then the Knesset can hold a second election 30 days later to fill vacant seats, according to a protocol summary sent by the Knesset’s legal adviser.
Opposition lawmaker MK Karine Elharrar is expected to stay on the ballot, meaning the coalition would pull all candidates except Gotliv, and then ask its lawmakers to vote against both.
This plan gives the coalition the advantage of waiting for the results of the Israel Bar Association’s June 20 election. If the bar’s new head is favorable to the coalition, it can then appoint two coalition MKs in hopes of winning a majority on the panel.
With four politicians and two IBA representatives, the coalition can choose the next Supreme Court president, after which they would have seven aligned votes and could tap Supreme Court justices.
If an IBA candidate is selected who does not support the overhaul, the coalition will have less motivation to fight for two coalition lawmaker seats.
Likud MK Moshe Passal and Shas MK Uriel Busso have reportedly pulled their candidacies for a post on the Judicial Selection Committee ahead of the vote.
This leaves a total of six candidates still vying for the two spots.
Generally, politicians cut deals in advance of the vote so that only two candidates remain on the ballot, although Likud MK Tally Gotliv has repeatedly said she will not drop out no matter what. The opposition has united behind Yesh Atid MK Karine Elharrar, while the coalition promised the Otzma Yehudit party a spot on the panel.
A forum of top business leaders calls on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to show “statesmanship” and ensure that the practice of appointing a coalition and opposition representative to the Judicial Selection Committee is continued.
The call comes ahead of a vote today to choose the two MKs who will serve on the judicial panel. The signatories from the Israel Business Forum include the heads of some of the country’s largest businesses and companies, as well as the top executives of Israeli banks.
“Israel’s economy has been in great turmoil for many months,” reads the letter by the business forum. “We, who have a broad overview of the Israeli economy as a whole, are experiencing this in all sectors and are concerned that a change in practice that has existed for years will lead to further and irreversible damage to investors’ confidence in the Israeli economy and Israel’s ability to emerge from the current crisis.”
MK Tally Gotliv says she will not withdraw her candidacy for a seat on the Judicial Selection Committee to be voted on today. She confirms this immediately after leaving the prime minister’s Knesset office, where she was summoned for a meeting.
Asked how the meeting with Netanyahu and coalition party heads was, Gotliv tells journalists: “Complicated.”
National Unity party MK Yifat Shasha-Biton says if the coalition takes control of both seats for MKs on the Judicial Selection Committee, the nationwide protest movement will return in full force.
“It is clear to everyone what the price of selecting two coalition representatives will be — it will reignite the protests, we will intensify it ourselves,” she tells Army Radio.
Likud MK David Bitan says the government should respect the tradition of nominating a coalition and opposition representative to the Judicial Selection Committee.
“I am waiting for the decision of the prime minister and the party leaders,” Bitan tells Army Radio. “It’s important for the decision on the Judicial Selection Committee to be one representative for the opposition and one for the coalition.”
Otzma Yehudit MK Yitzhak Kroizer says that the government should push through two coalition MKs on the Judicial Selection Committee rather than allowing one seat to go to an opposition candidate.
Kroizer, considered the coalition’s leading candidate for a spot on the panel, tells Ynet that “we don’t have to ignore the elephant in the room — this committee is at the heart of the [judicial] reform, and the government has a coalition majority for change. The coalition deserves two representatives” on the body.
Firebrand Likud MK Tally Gotliv says that she will not pull her nomination from the Judicial Selection Committee even if asked to do so by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“I want to convince Netanyahu to back me,” Gotliv tells 103FM radio, adding that Netanyahu called her last night and asked her to meet him this morning “and of course I’m going.”
A record 110 million people worldwide have been forcibly displaced from their homes, the United Nations says, branding the huge upsurge an “indictment” of the world.
Russia’s war in Ukraine, refugees fleeing Afghanistan and the fighting in Sudan have pushed the total number of refugees forced to seek shelter abroad, and those displaced within their own countries, to an unprecedented level, says UNHCR, the UN refugee agency.
Likud MK Eli Dallal has pulled his name from contention ahead of a vote on the two MKs who will sit on the Judicial Selection Committee.
The opposition has united around Yesh Atid MK Karine Elharrar as a candidate, but the coalition still has seven nominees.
Coalition leaders are meeting now in order to come to an agreement on their candidates ahead of the vote later today.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convenes a meeting of coalition leaders in an attempt to get everyone the same page ahead of a vote on choosing the two MKs who will serve on the Judicial Selection Committee.
“A little patience,” Netanyahu tells reporters as he enters his office in the Knesset.
The vote is expected to be held sometime today, but there are still eight names left on the ballot.
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