Meretz MK resigns from coalition, turning government into a minority

Meretz MK Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi pulls her support from the government, the second coalition member in the past two months to do so.

Her move means a majority of Knesset members now oppose the government, which is in the minority with 59 seats to 61 seats for the opposition.

In a letter addressed to coalition leaders Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, Zoabi says the government has moved rightward in recent months. She accuses it of adopting “hawkish stances” on issues critical to Arab society, listing, “al-Aqsa and the Temple Mount, Sheikh Jarrah, the settlement enterprise and the occupation, the destruction of homes and confiscation of lands in Arab communities in the Negev, and of course the Citizenship Law.”

The left-wing lawmaker says the past month has been “insufferable,” citing recent clashes between Palestinians and police on the Temple Mount and the death of an Al Jazeera reporter amid clashes between gunmen and IDF troops during a military raid in the northern West Bank city of Jenin.

“I cannot continue to support the existence of a coalition that in this shameful manner harasses the society I came from,” she adds.