Haskel Seeks One-Member Faction After Deputy Foreign Minister Resignation

MK Sharren Haskel asked the Knesset Committee to recognize her as a one-member faction separate from Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope. The move would preserve factional rights, including party financing, and strengthen her position in negotiations with another political slate before the election. Haskel does not comprise the one-third of her faction normally required for a split, and New Hope said her request does not meet the law’s conditions. The filing followed her resignation as deputy foreign minister after passage of a law freezing arrests of Haredi yeshiva students absent from military service; in a handwritten letter, she accused Sa’ar of lying to her and the Israeli public.