Knesset winter session by the numbers: MKs prove to be not very rebellious

Parties voted as a unit at least 99% of the time; Shas' Nissim Ze'ev is the least disciplined MK, going against opposition on 71 of 571 votes.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Knesset in the snow 370 (photo credit: Knesset Spokesman's Office)
Knesset in the snow 370
(photo credit: Knesset Spokesman's Office)
Rebellions and discipline were a big topic of conversation in the Knesset in recent weeks, with Bayit Yehudi MKs voting against the coalition and other lawmakers expressing discontent at having to keep party discipline, but a look at the numbers shows that the vast majority of the time, parties voted as a unit with very few lawmakers stepping out of line.
As the Knesset’s winter session came to a close this week, data gathered by Open Knesset, a project of the Workshop for Public Knowledge tracking the legislature’s activity, shows that parties voted as a unit at least 99 percent of the time. The two parties who voted as a unit 100% of the time are Kadima and Hadash, which have two and four MKs, respectively.
Parties also voted with the side to which they belong – coalition or opposition – the vast majority of the time. Shas, the most rebellious party in the Knesset, voted with the opposition 94% of the time.
The most rebellious party in the coalition, Likud Beytenu, was not very undisciplined, voting with the coalition 99.5% of the time.
The most rebellious MK of the 19th Knesset was Nissim Ze’ev (Shas), who voted against the opposition, of which he is a member, 71 out of 571 times. He voted against Shas only twice.
The lawmaker who voted against his own party more than any other is MK Ya’acov Asher (United Torah Judaism), who did so eight times out of 185 votes.
MK Yoni Chetboun (Bayit Yehudi) was the coalition’s least loyal member. His vote against the haredi enlistment law last week drew a lot of attention, but he went against the coalition five other times.
However, his 327 other votes were in keeping with coalition discipline.
The MK with the best attendance in committee meetings is Uri Maklev (UTJ), who went to 141, followed by Dov Henin (Hadash), who attended 101, Merav Michaeli (Labor), who took part in 97, and Hatnua’s David Tsur and Elazar Stern, who went to 80 each.
The most active committee is the Knesset Labor, Welfare and Health Committee, led by MK Haim Katz (Likud Beytenu), which held the title in the previous Knesset as well.
Since the 19th Knesset was sworn in in early 2013, the committee passed 29 laws, 20 of which were in the winter session that came to a close Wednesday.
The Knesset Law, Constitution and Justice Committee, led by MK David Rotem (Likud Beytenu), came in second place, with 26 laws passing, 17 in the winter session.