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New Hope MK Sharren Haskel told the High Court of Justice on Thursday that Knesset members from her party were instructed to video themselves voting for the Likud’s state comptroller candidate, Michael Rabello, in the controversial election held in the Knesset at the beginning of June.
In an affidavit to the High Court, Haskel said MKs were also instructed to show the video of their vote to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had insisted that Rabello, his longtime lawyer and adviser, be the coalition’s candidate.
Haskel did not say who issued those instructions. Nonetheless, her testimony contradicted previous affidavits filed at the court by Likud executive director David Sharan and several Likud MKs, who said there had been no instructions from Likud officials for coalition MKs to record their votes.
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel watchdog group called for the attorney general to open a perjury investigation in light of the apparently contradictory testimonies.
Rabello was elected to the watchdog role by the Knesset on June 3, after Netanyahu backed him against former Supreme Court justice Yosef Elron.
The High Court has ruled that a new election must be held because six coalition MKs recorded their votes in what was required to be a secret ballot, regardless of whether they were instructed to do so.
Rabello lost the first round of the June 3 voting to Elron 60-57. A second round of voting then began, since a candidate needs 61 votes to be elected, but was aborted after opposition MKs alleged that coalition MKs had been ordered to record their vote.
When the second round of voting started over, five Likud MKs videoed themselves voting for Rabello inside the booth, while one Shas MK openly displayed his vote to cameras outside the voting booth. Rabello won the second round 61-57, with some coalition MKs having apparently switched their votes from the first round.
Senior cabinet ministers, including Justice Minister Yariv Levin, said that the Knesset and government should ignore the High court ruling, but Rabello himself has refused to take up the position in light of the court decision.
Ignoring the ruling would cause a constitutional crisis, since the State Comptroller’s Office would not know which branch of government to obey — the High Court or the Knesset.
Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana has yet to schedule a new vote for the state comptroller position.
Haskel’s statement was made as part of her effort to become independent of New Hope, headed by Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar. Haskel, a former member of Likud who entered the current Knesset as part of Sa’ar’s New Hope party, opposed its March 2025 merger with Likud and has refused to run on the joint list. She has argued the parties have deliberately left the process of merging unfinished, to prevent her from splitting off as a one-member faction and taking with her the state funding attached to her Knesset seat.
The fight over Rabello’s election comes against the background of the government’s repeated efforts to reduce checks on government power and avoid scrutiny of its actions, such as the refusal to establish a state commission of inquiry into the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre. The state comptroller only has enforcement powers over election campaign finances for parties and political candidates, but is considered an important institution in impartially reviewing and auditing government functioning.
The post MK Haskel testifies lawmakers were told to film their votes for comptroller, show Netanyahu appeared first on The Times of Israel.
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