OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — A key member of Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s
Yamina party said Wednesday she was quitting his coalition government, in a surprise
move that leaves him without a parliamentary majority.
اضافة اعلان
Idit Silman’s
announcement left Bennett’s coalition, an alliance of parties ranging from the
Jewish right and Israeli doves to an Arab Muslim party, with 60 seats — the
same as the opposition.
“I tried the
path of unity. I worked a lot for this coalition,” Silman, a religious
conservative who served as coalition chairperson, said in a statement.
“Sadly, I cannot
take part in harming the Jewish identity of Israel.”
On Monday,
Silman lashed out at Health Minister
Nitzan Horowitz, after he instructed
hospitals to allow leavened bread products into their facilities during the
upcoming Passover holiday, in line with a recent supreme court ruling reversing
years of prohibition.
Jewish tradition
bars unleavened bread from the public domain during Passover.
“I am ending my
membership of the coalition and will try to continue to talk my friends into
returning home and forming a right-wing government,” Silman said.
“I know I’m not
the only one who feels this way.”
Bennett’s
coalition may continue ruling with 60 seats, although with difficulty passing
new legislation.
If another
member of the coalition defects, however, the Knesset could hold a vote of no
confidence and potentially lead Israel back to the polls for a fifth parliamentary
election in four years.
Political
analyst
Dahlia Scheindlin told AFP that if Silman “is the first person to
really prepare to bring down the government, she is doing it from the place of
conviction”.
“She is
religious, and I think we all underestimate the power of theology,” said
Scheindlin.
In a formal
resignation letter addressed to Bennett, Silman said: “We must admit that we
tried. It’s time to recalculate and try to form a national, Jewish, Zionist
government.”
‘Limp government’
Following the announcement, Silman was embraced by the same right-wing
politicians who had relentlessly attacked her since she followed Bennett into
the governing coalition last year, reneging on election promises.
“Idit, you’re
proof that what guides you is the concern for the
Jewish identity of Israel,
the concern for the land of Israel, and I welcome you back home to the national
camp,” opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video recording.
“I call on
whoever was elected with the votes of the national camp to join Idit and come
back home, you’ll be received with all due honor and open arms,” the right-wing
former prime minister added.
Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister
who was in office from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 until June 2021, had
vowed to play the role of spoiler against Bennett’s government which brought an
end to his years in power.
At a special
session of the Knesset, which is currently in recess, Netanyahu said: “There is
a weak and limp government in Israel today. Its days are numbered.”
The Knesset will
reconvene on May 8 to resume its legislative work.
To form a
coalition of his own without new elections, Netanyahu would need the support of
at least 61 lawmakers, which he currently does not have.
Bezalel Smotrich
of the Religious Zionism party, once a political partner of Bennett, expressed
his appreciation to Silman for her “courage to make the difficult move”, and
predicted the ruling coalition would not survive her defection.
“This is the
beginning of the end of the left-wing, non-Zionist government of Bennett and
the Islamist Movement,” he wrote on Twitter.
There was no immediate
comment from Bennett, whose Yamina party now holds just five of parliament’s
120 seats.
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