The Israeli Parliament approves its dissolution and calls for early elections

First modification: 06/30/2022 – 14:44

Israel marks the end of an experimental coalition government, which only lasted a year, and calls for early elections.

With 92 votes in favor and none against, the legislators approved on June 30 the dissolution of the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament.

This is how Naftali Bennet ends his position as prime minister and becomes the person who has lasted the least in that position in the country. Bennet will be replaced on an interim basis by the hitherto foreign minister, Yair Lapid.

After the vote, Lapid hugged Bennett before the two exchanged chairs. “Thank you, Naftali, my brother,” the interim leader later posted on his Twitter account.

The government collapsed just over a year after it was formed in an unprecedented move that saw then-premier Benjamin Netanyahu leave office after 12 years in power by a coalition of ideologically diverse parties and the first to include a faction Arab.

But the disagreements between the different parties of the new Administration led to the dissolution motion and ended the political experiment.

The death blow came earlier this month when the government failed to renew an emergency law preserving the special legal status of Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank, legislation that most Israelis see as essential.

Because the Knesset was dissolved before the end of the month, the emergency law is automatically renewed until after the formation of a new Administration.

The outgoing coalition made history by being the first to include an Arab party. Mansour Abbas, leader of the Islamist Ra’am faction, joined to secure better services and more government funding for Israel’s Arab minority, which makes up about 20% of the population. It is uncertain if they will achieve the same political inclusion in the next government.

New electoral duel between Lapid and Netanyahu

Now what is expected to be a bitter electoral battle is opening between Lapid, while he is acting prime minister, and Netanyahu, turned opposition leader.

Bennett, a former Army commander and tech millionaire, will not stand for election. In a statement released on Wednesday, June 29, he assured that his cabinet leaves a “prosperous, strong and safe country” and that he has shown that parties from different ends of the political spectrum can work together.

Against this backdrop, Lapid, a former talk show host and head of a center-left party, is expected to campaign to retain the job as the main alternative to Netanyahu. He will likely get an early boost when he hosts President Joe Biden, who arrives in Israel next week, as leader of the nation.

But Netanyahu has already made it clear that he will fight to regain his position. After being ousted just over a year ago, he vowed to return to power as head of the right-wing Likud party. And now, with the latent opportunity, the ex-premier takes the opportunity to reproach alleged failures of the outgoing Administration.

“They promised changes, they talked about healing, they tried an experiment and the experiment failed (…) We are the only alternative: a strong, stable and responsible nationalist government,” Netanyahu said in a speech before Parliament before the vote that ended up dissolving the Legislative.

While opinion polls currently show Likud as the strongest political party, they show no clear winner in the election, leaving Israel facing months of political uncertainty as regional security and economic problems mount.

With Reuters, AP and EFE