Israel’s Battered Coalition Dealt Double Blow as 2 Bills Fail

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett attends a cabinet meeting at the Prime minister's o
ABIR SULTAN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Deborah Brand

Israel’s teetering coalition was dealt a double blow late on Monday when two key bills failed to pass.

The first bill, which seeks to extend civil law applying Israeli residents in Jewish West Bank settlements, has been renewed every five years for the past 55 years. Monday’s vote took a historic turn when 58 lawmakers voted against the legislation and 52 backed it.

The second was a bill to reinstate Yamina MK Matan Kahana as religious affairs minister, in what Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said was a vote of confidence. The motion was torpedoed by rebel MK Idit Silman, also from the Yamina party, who voted against alongside the opposition lead by Benjamin Netanyahu.

The vote crumbled after reaching a deadlock of 55-55 for and against.

“Silman today proved in her actions that she does not see herself as part of a right-wing faction and I assume that this will have consequences in the future,” Kahana tweeted following the vote.

Silman, the former coalition whip, dramatically quit the government in April, depriving it of its majority.

Netanyahu tweeted on Tuesday morning: “Silman, you are a champion!”

Silman absented herself for the earlier West Bank vote while the Arab Ra’am party’s Mazen Ghanayim and Rinawie Zoabi, a would-be rebel MK from the far-left Meretz party who quit and then walked her decision back last month, voted against the legislation.
Arab-Israeli Zoabi later said her decision to vote against the bill was driven by an ideological duty to the Palestinians.
“It’s my duty to be on the right side of history by delegitimizing the occupation and supporting the basic right of the Palestinian people in establishing a state alongside the state of Israel.”
The opposition scuttled the bill even though ideologically it remains in favor of it, but is seeking to weaken the government.

If the bill does not pass by July 1, nearly half a million Israelis who live in the West Bank would not be bound by Israeli law and would not have voting rights. Israelis who commit crimes in those areas will be tried in military courts and serve time in the West Bank.

Furthermore, Israeli police will no longer have the jurisdiction to investigate Israeli settlers who are suspected of committing crimes, and neither would they have the power to investigate Israelis who committed crimes inside Israel and who subsequently flee to the West Bank.

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