Israel coalition turns minority govt after Arab MP quits

Again and again the heads of the coalition have taken hawkish, rigid and right-wing stances regarding basic issues of utmost importance for Arab society

GHAIDA RINAWIE ZOABI Meretz party

TEL AVIV: A left-wing Arab Israeli lawmaker quit the governing coalition on Thursday, citing among other factors police aggression at Al Jazeera reporter’s funeral, rendering the government a minority in parliament.

The decision by Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi of the dovish Meretz party leaves the coalition headed by right-wing Prime Minister Naftali Bennett with just 59 out of 120 seats in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset.

The development does not, however, necessarily indicate that the coalition — an alliance of parties ranging from the Jewish right and Israeli doves to an Arab Muslim party — is set to collapse.

Approving a motion to dissolve parliament and call new elections requires 61 votes. Several opposition lawmakers, including Zoabi and members of the Arab Joint List, are bitterly opposed to the current opposition leader, former premier Benjamin Netanyahu.

In a letter announcing her decision to leave the coalition, Zoabi said: “Again and again the heads of the coalition have taken hawkish, rigid and right-wing stances regarding basic issues of utmost importance for Arab society.”

She referred to unrest at the Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al Aqsa mosque compound, tensions in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbour of Israeliannexed

east Jerusalem, and “the funeral of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.”

“I cannot continue supporting the existence of a coalition that harasses my community in this disgraceful manner,” Zoabi wrote. A member of Israel’s 20 per cent Arab minority, Zoabi had been nominated to serve as Israel’s consulgeneral in Shanghai, taking up her post over the summer.