Six days after giving birth, Yamina lawmaker Shirly Pinto arrived to the Knesset to vote on legislation, due to fears among the coalition that they would not have enough votes for the bills to pass.
Fellow Yamina MK Abir Kara had decided to boycott some of the votes out of opposition to the government’s treatment of businesses in its efforts to fight COVID. The opposition had also refused to offset Pinto’s absence by having a designated member abstain from voting.
Pinto told fellow lawmakers, “It is an unethical act to bring in a woman right after she has given birth. Sadly, my dear opposition, your leader has led you astray.”
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, also of Yamina, said in a statement that opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s reluctance to offset Pinto’s vote is “a low point in the behavior of a person towards his peers, and a low point in relation to mothers, wherever they may be.” He said that he was angry to see the MK in Knesset, and that the mother of a 6-day-old needs time to recover.
He thanked Pinto for coming in to vote with her infant daughter, and added, “It’s time to go back to the humane rules of the game.”
Orli Levi-Abekasis of Likud, meanwhile, said that Pinto is in the Knesset due to the so-called Norwegian law, which allows ministers to resign from the parliament to allow more party members to take their places. Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked “should do the honor and return to the Knesset while [Pinto] is on maternity leave,” she said.
Levi-Abekasis added, “Abir Kara was forced to bring [Pinto] in. You, the coalition, don’t just engineer consciousness, you’re committing an ugly act showing a lack of solidarity with your friend.”
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The deputy chairman of the Knesset, Ahmad Tibi of the Joint List, led the conversation. He responded to Levi-Abekasis: “Last week, the Joint List offset MK Pinto. A new situation came about today in which a coalition member, MK Abir Kara who is not present, is angry, and therefore the coalition was forced to bring in Pinto.”
Tibi added that he is upset about Kara’s frustration, which stems from the new Green Pass requirements for indoor commercial areas, “but am much more upset about the need to bring in a woman just after she gave birth.”
