Hadash: No Support for a Gov’t That’ll Be No Different from the Outgoing Far-Right Coalition

Yesh Atid’s leader, MK Yair Lapid, announced at 11:30 pm Wednesday night, June 2, a half hour before his mandate was due to expire, that following a series of back-to-back meetings with the leaders of the anti-Netanyahu camp in the Knesset, he has managed to form a coalition. Lapid’s coalition includes eight parties: Yesh Atid, far-right Yamina, Israel Beiteinu and New Hope parties, Labor, Kahol Lavan, Meretz and Islamist United Arab List (Ra’am).

“I am honored to inform you that I have managed to form a government. The government will be a rotation government, in accordance with clause 13a in the Basic Law on the Government. I will lead it with MK Naftali Bennett who will be the first to serve as prime minister,” Lapid said.

Naftali Bennett during his tenure as Chairman of the Yesha (Judea, Samaria and Gaza) Council

Naftali Bennett during his tenure as Chairman of the Yesha (Judea, Samaria and Gaza) Council (Photo: Yesha Council)

Hadash, the electoral front of the Communist Party of Israel (CPI), one of the three components that make up the Joint List, said late on Tuesday, June 1, that they would not support a government that is no different in its policies from the outgoing far-right coalition. “We are voting on policies and not personalities,” the Hadash-CPI said in a joint statement.

“We are not interested in changing personas, but rather with changing policies, eradicating racism and opposing the occupation,” said in the statement.

Hadash MK Aida Touma-Sliman (Joint List) a leading member of the CPI wrote on Twitter that Bennett would lead “a dangerous right-wing government,” one that would “remove Netanyahu but preserve his path.” Bennett is the former head of the Yesha Council representing the settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Similar to Hadash’s three MKs, Balad – another member of the Joint List with only a single lawmaker in the current Knesset – also declared it would vote against the proposed Bennett-Lapid government. Ta’al, headed by MK Ahmad Tibi and which has two seats in the Knesset, still has not announced whether it will support, oppose or abstain from next week’s Knesset vote of confidence in the new government.

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