Israel’s ruling coalition suffered a serious blow on Monday night after it failed to pass a bill on rules governing Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, a vote that turned out to be a major blow to Israel. become an important test of government viability.
Failure comes two months after the government lost parliamentary majority and deepened uncertainty about how long the coalition, which stretches across the political spectrum, can hang on to power.
The government, which includes Jewish nationalists, and for the first time in Israeli political history, an Arab Muslim party, was formed a year ago by eight parties united mainly with the hope of would like End of Prime Ministership of Benjamin Netanyahuwho dominated the country’s politics for a decade.
Due to the profound differences between the members, the alliance seek to set aside controversial issues involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and focused his energies on other topics instead.
But analysts say stress about Israeli-Palestinian Relations has repeatedly sparked crises within the ruling party. “Israel controls the Palestinians. But conflict and occupation also control Israel,” said Dahlia Scheindlin, a political consultant and pollster. “Even if we think we can ignore it, we can’t.”
The “emergency” laws being debated on Monday applied portions of Israeli law to some 500,000 Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians are subject to military law.
In force since 1967, these laws have been renewed every five years. The most recent five-year period ends at the end of the month, and if the laws are not renewed by then, they will expire.
Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar said that failure to renew the emergency law would cause “chaos”. In recent days, his nationalist New Hope party has intimated that it could leave the government if the law is not renewed.
“Any coalition member who does not support such a basic bill is actively working to tear down the union,” Sa’ar said ahead of the vote.
However, in a sign of significant divisions within the coalition, two of its MPs voted against the bill, while several others were absent.
Given that the government controls only 60 of the 120 seats in Israel’s Knesset, that’s enough for the coalition to be defeated, as nationalist opposition MPs led by Netanyahu’s Likud party have brushed aside support. Their tradition is for people to set aside and vote yes against the bill. an attempt to overcome the government agenda.
Israeli governments could be overthrown if opposition parties can gather a majority in favor of another government or dissolve parliament.
Scheindlin said the vote did not mean either would happen automatically and warned that, despite the weakness of the coalition, Netanyahu still needed to win over a number of defectors to be successful. form its own government without new elections.
“[Losing Monday’s vote] Not just icons. It was a serious blow. . . and could very well lead to a chain of events where one party officially leaves the union or there is a vote to dissolve the Knesset,” she said. “But they can also get through somehow. It’s still an option.”
