JERUSALEM, Israel – Another member of Israel’s parliament resigned from the ruling coalition Thursday afternoon, pushing Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s government into the minority and raising the possibility of another national election.
Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi’s decision to bolt Bennett’s government leaves him with just 59 seats in Israel’s 120-seat parliament. Bennett is still in power, but it will be very difficult for his crumbling government to function.
Zoabi is an Arab member of the left-wing Meretz Party. In a letter to Bennett, she accused the ruling coalition of embracing increasingly right-wing ideologies and “hawkish stances” on Arab Israelis. She cited recent clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians on the Temple Mount and the death of a well-known Al-Jazeera reporter during a gunfight between Israeli security forces and terror suspects in the West Bank – biblical Judea and Samaria.
“Enough. I cannot continue to support a coalition that in such a shameful way hounds the society from which I came,” she wrote.
Bennett is the head of a small, right-wing party. As prime minister, he leads a ruling coalition of politically diverse parties from the right, left and center, and for the first time, an Islamist Arab party. The members of his coalition don’t have much in common other than their desire to push Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu out of power.
They have attempted to set aside divisive issues like Palestinian statehood, and focus instead on navigating the pandemic and building relationships with Israel’s Arab neighbors.
Netanyahu, who leads an opposition that holds 61 seats in parliament, will likely try to bring a bill to dissolve parliament and force elections.
To bring down the government, opposition lawmakers would need 61 votes in favor of dissolving parliament or forming an alternate governing coalition.
However, the opposition is also deeply divided and some members appear to be opposed to new elections.
If the opposition manages to topple the government, it could bring about an election in the fall.
A Israel Hayom poll conducted by the Maagar Mochot Institute found that most Israelis believe Netanyahu is better suited for the role of prime minister than Bennett. However, it found that if an election were held today, neither political bloc would win a clear majority, leading to another inconclusive election result.
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