The Independent Liberal Party ministers Moshe Kol and Gideon Hausner attended the weekly Cabinet meeting today after the Supreme Court ruled that their resignations from the government last month were invalid. The court also upheld Premier Yitzhak Rabin’s dismissal of the National Religious Party ministers, an act that led to the resignation of his government and its transformation into a caretaker regime.
The decision, announced Friday by the five judge panel consisting of Justices Yoel Sussman, Zvi Berenson, Yitzhak Kahan, BenZion Shershevsky and Shlomo Asher, tied up the loose ends of December’s government crisis. Berenson, who delivered the opinion, said the court agreed with Attorney General Aharon Barak that Rabin’s resignation Dec. 21. several hours after Kol and Hausner quit the coalition government, froze the Cabinet. Under Israeli law, no member may resign from a caretaker government. The law also states that resignations do not become effective until 48 hours after they are submitted and announced to the Knesset.
Kol, the Minister of Tourism, and Hausner. Minister-Without-Portfolio, said they would abide by the court’s decision. But they stressed that their political differences with Rabin’s Labor Alignment were not resolved.
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