The Zionist Union and Yesh Atid either supported or merely abstained from most of the votes on controversial bills submitted to the Knesset during the past year, the first year of Netanyahu’s far-right government, a Palestinian research institute has found. The Palestinian Forum for Israel Studies (MADAR) surveyed the Israeli opposition’s votes on various bills. A report it issued says the Zionist Union and Yesh Atid voted in favor of 12­–17% of controversial bills regarding Palestinians in the occupied territories or Arab-Palestinians citizens of Israel, and which are seen by the Palestinians as being racist or discriminatory.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his racist appointee to the far-right Israeli government as the new defense minister, Avigdor Liberman, address the press following last week’s coalition agreement. (Photo: Knesset)

The report analyzes 24 votes on numerous bills, which have either passed in the Knesset or are in various stages of legislation. These include bills to deport terrorists’ families, force-feed hunger-striking prisoners, toughen the penalty for stone throwers, and the so-called “citizenship law.”

The Zionist Union voted against these laws in 40.8% of the votes but supported them 16.8% of the time while its  abstention rate was 42.4%; meaning that the Knesset bloc comprised of the Labor Party and HaT’nua of Tzipi Livne voted for or abstained in 59.2% of the votes on the racist legislation.

For its part, Yesh Atid voted against the bills in 33.7% of the votes, but supported them in 12.1% of the cases while abstaining 54.15% of the time; meaning that the party headed by Yair Lapid voted for or abstained in 66.25% of the votes on these controversial bills.

By comparison, Liberman’s racist Yisrael Beiteinu party abstained from 84% of the votes and supported all the rest of the bills, yielding a for/abstention rate of 100%.

The author of the report, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Israel, Barhoum Jeraisy, told Haaretz that the study “presents a grim picture. Apart from the Joint List and Meretz MKs, almost 90% of the other factions’ members voted for at least one bill seen by the Palestinians as racist or discriminatory. This reflects the reality in Israeli society today,” he said.