At right-wing rally, Netanyahu calls on more coalition MKs to defect: ‘Come home’

Thousands of right-wing demonstrators gather in Jerusalem as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a campaign speech.

“Everyone in the coalition with a heart and a conscience — come back home. Come back to the right,” Netanyahu says following the defection this morning of Yamina MK Idit Silman, leaving the coalition without a simple majority.

Netanyahu repeats his demand for the current government, led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, to go home.

Demonstrators chant “Bennett, go home.” A few of the rally’s many participants wear the black and yellow shirts associated with the ultra-nationalist Lehava movement.

“Go home, because you’re hurting the country’s Jewish identity,” Netanyahu says.

Netanyahu adds that the current government is not doing enough for “young settlement” in the West Bank, a right-wing term used to refer to Jewish hilltop outposts illegal under Israeli law.

“Go home because you’re weak against Iran and again terrorism,” the former premier says.