Abbas offered job of deputy construction minister
Construction and Housing Minister Ze’ev Elkin offered Ra’am (United Arab List) chairman Mansour Abbas to be his deputy in the ministry on Wednesday, in an effort to resolve the first crisis in the new coalition.
The post would enable Abbas to authorize the construction of tens of thousands of housing units for Israeli Arabs. Israel has never built a new city for Arabs, and Abbas could have the opportunity to change that.
The coalition crisis is over a controversial ordinance preventing family reunification of Palestinians and Arab-Israelis that must come to a vote in the Knesset next week. In a new effort to resolve the dispute, Elkin offered Abbas the chairmanship of a committee on humanitarian exceptions to the law, in which he could review specific cases monthly.
Abbas holds the key to passing the ordinance, after Meretz announced that it would vote for it, despite its opposition, in order to keep the coalition together.
The coalition also gained a boost on Wednesday, when rebel Yamina MK Amichai Chikli agreed to support the ordinance.
After his initial opposition to the government’s formation, Chikli is expected to accept coalition discipline in most cases, in return for being allowed to join Knesset committees. Chikli agreed to coordinate his voting with the heads of the coalition, who would give him the right to vote his conscience in certain instances.
The Religious Zionist Party said Elkin’s offer to Abbas proved that in order to survive, the coalition would sell out the national security interests of Israel.