JERUSALEM, Israel – The future of the coalition government headed by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid is in question on Monday as the coalition prepares for a critical vote on the legal status of Israeli settlement communities in the West Bank – biblical Judea and Samaria.
If the vote fails to pass, the fragile government could crumble.
The bill would renew a decades-old measure that extends Israeli law to citizens living in the West Bank. The regulations mean that Israeli citizens living there are treated as though they live in Israel, even though the territory is disputed and has not been officially annexed by Israel. Those same legal protections do not apply to Palestinians who are also living there.
The measure must be renewed every five years and expires at the end of June. Failure to pass the bill could jeopardize the legal status of Israelis in the West Bank and could prevent them from receiving ID cards, which are needed to exercise basic rights like voting, Channel 12 news reported.
“It will create chaos for justice matters in Judea and Samaria,” Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar told Israeli media last week. “It will harm the territory’s connection to Israel and Israeli law, and will harm some 500,000 Israelis living in Judea and Samaria.”
Bennett’s governing coalition is made of eight ideologically different parties from the political right, left, center and for the first time, an Arab Islamist party.
Bennett’s coalition has attempted to set aside divisive issues like Palestinian statehood, and focus instead on navigating the pandemic and building relationships with Israel’s Arab neighbors like the UAE and Bahrain. Monday’s vote is a crucial test of how the coalition will deal with controversial issues like Israeli settlement communities in the West Bank.
Proponents of renewing the measure say they are trying to maintain the status quo in the West Bank and preserve the fragile government. Opponents say the measure unfairly creates two different sets of legal protections for Israeli and Palestinian residents living in the same territory.
Although right-wing members of the opposition, led by Netanyahu, agree with the measure, they have vowed to vote against it to bring down the government.
Yair Golan of the left-wing Meretz party urged all coalition members to vote in favor of the measure, even if they ideologically oppose it, for the sake of saving Bennett’s coalition.
“It’s not simple or easy for us either but we understand there is an overarching goal and that overarching goal is the survival of this government,” Golan told Israeli Army Radio.
Meanwhile, Ra’am, the Arab Islamist party in Bennett’s coalition is concerned that voting in favor of the bill will anger its constituents. Ra’am has not announced how it will vote, but there is already talk of major political fallout for Bennett if the bill fails.
Israeli media report that Justice Minister Sa’ar’s participation in the government could be at risk if the bill fails to pass. Bennett’s coalition whip already quit earlier this year, leaving his government with just 60 seats in Israel’s 120-seat parliament. A defection from Sa’ar could further push Bennett’s government to the point of collapse.
A new poll from Israel’s Channel 12 found that opposition leader Netanyahu is gaining ground among voters and that most Israelis believe the current government will collapse in the next six months.
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