After leaving coalition, Meretz MK says will vote her ‘conscience’ on new elections

Rebel Meretz MK Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi says she quit the coalition after reaching the “point of no return.”

“The scenes in recent weeks [of violence] at Al-Aqsa and at the funeral of Shireen Abu Akleh, for me, were the straw that broke the camel’s back,” she says.

In an interview with Channel 12 news, Rinawie Zoabi suggests could back the dissolution of Knesset but is non-committal on whether she will in fact do so.

“I’ll vote in accordance with my conscience,” she says.

However, Rinawie Zoabi also appears to keep the door open to some sort of cooperation with the coalition.

“I won’t automatically blow up the coalition,” she says.

If Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked and Defense Minister Benny Gantz change their behavior, she adds, “I might support the coalition from the outside.”

“The Arab public is fed up with the behavior of this government,” she says.

Rinawie Zoabi also says the intentions of the coalition’s Islamist Ra’am party and its leader Mansour Abbas are good, and “they want to do good for Arab society.”

“But Jewish politicians [in the coalition] are not ready to see us [Arab legislators] as equals,” she charges.