11 coalition MKs vow to oppose budget-linked bill unless agriculture reform nixed

Eleven members of the coalition warn threaten to vote against a key law bill attached to the state budget — a move that can fell the government — if a planned agriculture reform is not scrapped.

The lawmakers, from the Blue and White and Labor parties, say in a letter to Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman and Agriculture Minister Oded Forer that they could vote next week against the arrangements law, a law stating the government’s economic plans that is passed each year alongside the state budget, whose passage is critical to keeping the government intact.

They oppose a reform that would reduce import barriers on agricultural products, in a move proponents say will lower the prices and increase the quality and competition, while critics say it will harm local industry.