TEL AVIV, Jun 3 (NNN-ANI) – Benjamin Netanyahu is set to be ousted, after his opponents reached a coalition deal to form a new government.
Opposition leader, Yair Lapid, officially informed President Reuven Rivlin and Knesset Speaker, Yariv Levin, late last night that, a coalition deal has been formed, to form a new government and is prepared to replace Netanyahu as Prime Minister. Yamina leader, Naftali Bennett, is likely to replace Netanyahu as the new PM.
“I commit to you Mr. President, that this government will work to serve all the citizens of Israel, including those who aren’t members of it, will respect those who oppose it, and do everything in its power to unite all parts of Israeli society,” Lapid told Rivlin at 11:35 pm, last night, reported Jerusalem Post.
Naftali Bennett, Lapid and Ra’am (United Arab List) chairman, Mansour Abbas, signed an agreement at a meeting at Ramat Gan’s Kfar Hamaccabiah Hotel, in a first coalition deal ever signed by an Arab party.
The Southern Islamic Movement’s Shura Council, decided in Kfar Kassem, to empower Abbas to make a final decision about whether to enter the coalition, based on his conversation with Bennett and Lapid.
“The decision was hard and there were several disputes but it was important to reach agreements,” Abbas told reporters, after singing the deal, reported Jerusalem Post.
Another coalition deal was signed with the New Hope Party. The deal guarantees splitting the role of the attorney-general, preventing Palestinian construction in Israeli controlled Area C of the West Bank and legalising the usage of cannabis. The party received the Justice, Education, Construction and Communications portfolios.
Another dispute appeared to be on the way to a compromise, after Bennett’s number two in Yamina, MK Ayelet Shaked, accepted a rotation in the Judicial Selection Committee with Labour leader, Merav Michaeli.
According to the compromise, Shaked would serve on the committee in the first half of the term, along with an MK from Labour, and Michaeli in the second half, along with an MK from New Hope, reported Jerusalem Post.
Michaeli and Lapid met late last night just ahead of the deadline.
Lapid needed to tell President Reuven Rivlin and Knesset Speaker, Yariv Levin, by 11:59 p.m. that he can form a government.
Had he not done so, the mandate would have gone to the Knesset, where any MK had the opportunity to build a coalition with the support of 61 MKs.– NNN-ANI
