Mk Yehuda Glick (Likud), who lives in the community of Otniel in Judea and Samaria, enjoys a Knesset security detail and drives an armored car, in accordance with police directives, Knesset Officer Joseph Griff revealed in a meeting of the Committee on the Knesset Budget. The committee approved budgeting $530 thousand for purchasing armored vehicles for MKs. Added to an already existing $530 thousand in the budget to the same end, the replacement of both vehicles will cost $1.05 million, The Marker reported Monday.
The committee has settled on buying two Toyota Land Cruisers, to serve MKs driving in Judea and Samaria. The overall security budget for individual MKs comes to roughly $2 million.
The armored vehicles that are being replaced, according to Griff, are older cars, from 2006 and 2008, which spend too much time in the shop waiting for parts. The current fleet of armored cars is not big enough to accommodate every MK whose assigned vehicles are being repaired.
Griff added that the armored vehicles assigned to Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein and to Opposition Leader Isaac Herzog are also problematic. Most of the problems, Griff said, have to do with the heavy armor.
The Knesset paid its employees an additional half million dollars for overtime in 2016, because so many plenum sessions stretched into the wee hours. In this context, Zionist Camp whip MK Merav Michaeli protested the government’s decision to submit 15 new bills for first hearings this week, taking advantage of the fact that the summer vacation is around the corner. Michaeli announced that her faction retains its democratic right to filibuster, even at the expense of MKs’ summer fun.
And just in case you were wondering where all this extra money came from, Knesset accountant Haim Avidor said the money will come from a special budget reserve kept for just these kinds of miscellaneous items.