Reports in various news outlets this week said that a number of parties were working to cancel the law dismissing the 21st Knesset and cancel the do-over election, scheduled for Sept. 17. On Monday, MK Miki Zohar (Likud) confirmed in an interview to Israel Radio that the Likud had "held talks" on the idea.
"We looked into the possibility of canceling the election. At least 119 MKs don't want an election," Zohar said.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
Israel Hayom reached out to legal scholars to determine if would even be legally feasible to cancel the law dissolving the 21st Knesset and cancel the September election by security a special majority of at least 80 MKs.
Clause 9a of the Basic Law: The Knesset states that "the Knesset shall not extend its term except by law passed by a majority of eighty members of the Knesset and only if special circumstances exist that prevent holding the elections at their proper time; the period of extension shall not exceed the time necessary due to the aforementioned circumstances; the election date shall be fixed by the aforementioned law."
Professor Aviad Hacohen, dean of the Shaarei Mishpat Academic College, rejected the idea definitively.
"The moment the Knesset dissolved itself, it effectively loses its validity and is considered a transitional Knesset," he explains. In other words, the aforementioned clause does not apply, because it deals with a Knesset that is still in session. Hacohen points out that the clause mainly pertains to an emergency situation in which the date of a Knesset's dispersal can be postponed, although he calls such a situation "unhealthy for democracy."
Unhealthy or not, that situation has already come to pass in Israel once – during the Yom Kippur War. The government under then-Prime Minister Golda Meir and the Knesset extended their term in office due to the defense emergency, even though a Knesset election was scheduled to be held. The parties in the Knesset voted to postpone the election by two months, and the legislative power of the Knesset (which unlike the current was, was still officially in session) was extended accordingly.
"Today, the moment a law to dissolve the Knesset is passed, the clock can't be turned back. It is completely different from '73, when the Knesset had not been dissolved," Hacohen says.
When Israel Hayom asked Hacohen what would happen if a state of emergency were declared, he said that in a state of emergency, the term of the "transitional Knesset" could be extended by no more than a few months, but the law to dissolve it could not be canceled.
Judge (ret.) Oded Mudrick, former deputy president of the Tel Aviv District Court, confirmed Hacohen's opinion.
"The moment the Knesset was dissolved, it ceased to have any legislative authority. One of the areas in which we see this is that it can't pass the state budget," Mudrick says.
"In other words, a Knesset that dissolved itself cannot pass any law that would change things, so there are special provisions for this situation," he says.
Mudrick explains that if the state budget law cannot be passed, then the Knesset can certainly not pass a law canceling the election and reinstating itself.
