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Monday, December 16, 2024
Likud sources say Netanyahu unlikely to fire Ben Gvir for voting against state budget
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Likud sources tell Hebrew media that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is unlikely to fire far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, even though he took an almost unprecedented step and voted against the state budget.
Government regulations say that a minister who votes against his own government’s budget can be viewed as having resigned. The budget must be passed by the end of March 2025 or the government will automatically fall, triggering early elections.
Ben Gvir’s fellow Otzma Yehudit party members also voted against the first reading of the budget, which nevertheless passed 59-57.
They did not resign, and the Likud sources say that Netanyahu, who fears he could lose power, “will not be in a hurry to fire them.”
Opposition leader Yair Lapid, whose father Tommy Lapid was fired as a minister by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for voting against the budget in 2004, says Netanyahu will not act because “he is a coward.”
“My father knew he would be fired, because a government minister is forbidden from voting against the budget, unless the prime minister is weak and a coward, then it’s okay,” Lapid writes.
The Times of Israel Community.