From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, May 17, 2023
Netanyahu, Ben Gvir meet in bid to iron out latest coalation crisis
Carrie Keller-Lynn is a former political and legal correspondent for The Times of Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir meet to solve a brewing coalition crisis over budgetary allocations, after Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party walks out from the Knesset during floor voting.
A source close to Ben Gvir says that the prime minister agreed that there is a problem, and that a solution must be found. However, no solution was reached during the short meeting.
“We are asking for equality,” says the source, referring to the fact that their party’s Negev and Galilee Ministry received NIS 460 billion in discretionary funds, while far-right Religious Zionism received over a billion shekels for party ministries and ultra-Orthodox parties got a NIS 3.7 billion boost for yeshiva students.
Otzma Yehudit has not specified a specific desired figure.
