After a long night of debate, the Knesset plenum on Tuesday morning passed the contentious supermarkets bill with a razor-thin majority of 58-57, giving the interior minister power to regulate businesses that choose to remain open on the Sabbath.
The marathon session was the result of an opposition filibuster, which allowed opposition factions to stop the discussion at all times and call for votes on hundreds of one-line items in the bill.
A reservation proposed by Zionist Union MK Itsik Shmuli that would have exempted stores that sell kitchen items from the law passed after a technical glitch failed to count votes by Housing and Construction Minister Yoav Gallant and Deputy Minister Eli Ben-Dahan, but was then canceled.
The filibuster was unsuccessful. At 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, Zionist Union chairman Yoel Hasson made the surprising announcement that the opposition was withdrawing its line-item objections and requesting that the plenum vote on the bill.
But Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Habayit Hayehudi) took the floor and spoke until all coalition MKs and ministers could be called back to the floor to cast their votes.
Announcing the result, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein called the result "surprising," as on Monday evening the coalition was still expecting that the bill would pass with a majority of at least 59 votes.
Several MKs abstained from the vote, either for personal reasons – as in the case of Habayit Hayehudi MK Moti Yogev, who is in mourning for his mother – or because they did not want to vote against their party's line, in the case of MKs Sharren Haskel (Likud) and Tali Ploskov (Kulanu).
Opposition member MK Yossi Yonah (Zionist Union), who is in mourning for his brother, was also absent from the vote.
Immigrant Absorption Minister Sofa Landver, whose Yisrael Beytenu party opposes the bill, also abstained, because as a minister she would have to resign from the cabinet if she voted against it.
On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a meeting of the Likud faction hat "voting against the supermarkets bill is like voting to bring down the government."
Yisrael Beytenu leader Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman made it clear that his faction would vote against the bill.
"We won't give anything on this matter and we'll vote as we have [in the past]. I should stress that the people who go to the supermarket on Saturday are people who work hard all week long, pay taxes, serve in the military, and do reserve service. We'll do our best to make sure this bill doesn't pass," Lieberman said.
Labor Party chairman Avi Gabbay said, "I can tell you that Netanyahu is good at handing out favors, and I never understood what prompted him to take action against the interests of the public. Enough with the pretending."
Opposition Leader MK Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union) said, "The supermarkets bill is another brick the coalition is pulling out of our national wall, and threatens to bring the ceiling down on our heads. We should have spent 10 hours in the plenum debating the bill on [benefits for] the disabled instead of making one of the issues that characterizes the Jewish people the subject of a dispute. Shabbat, which everyone observes as they see fit, is becoming the center of a dispute here in the Knesset."
Yesh Atid party head Yair Lapid said, "The haredim are coming into our homes and telling us how to live our lives. They are making Shabbat into something that causes fights and disagreements. I respect Judaism. It's part of my life. I have no respect for haredi coercion of this kind. Netanyahu folds to anyone who works with him, and at the expense of the citizens of Israel."
