Responding to requests from both the Labor Alignment and the Likud, temporary Knesset Speaker Abba Eban decided today that the Knesset will not convene next week to elect a permanent speaker.
Eban received the requests not to summon the Knesset on September 3, as he had originally planned. The two major parties apparently hope that by next weekend, the coalition scene will be clarified and thus the issue of choosing a permanent Speaker may also be resolved.
The Alignment reportedly fears that, under current circumstances, it would not be able to garner enough votes for its condidate, former Interior Minister Shlomo Hillel, who does not have the support of 60 Knesset members because the Hadash Party and the Progressive list decline to support him. The reason is understood to be disagreement with his role in the 1976 events on Land Day which led to the deaths of six Arabs.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
