Meretz’s Regional Cooperation Minister Esawi Frej says that a meeting he took part in with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and renegade Meretz MK Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi was conducted “in a good atmosphere.”
The meeting between Lapid, Zoabi, Frej and other ministers as well as Arab mayors ended, and Lapid and Zoabi are now meeting one-on-one.
Frej, who is the second Muslim minister ever in Israel, says that it is clear that the Arab community in Israel wants “to preserve the government and the coalition.” According to a statement from his office, Frej says that they are working “to turn this crisis into an opportunity to strengthen the government’s commitment to the Arab community.”
He also says that the Arab mayors who took part in the meeting vocalized their support for maintaining the government. Zoabi placed the already-fractured coalition in danger after announcing last week that she was defecting to the opposition, leaving it in the minority.
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