Opposition lawmakers decry ‘failed coalition’ as Knesset heads into summer recess

By Sam Sokol 24 July 2025, 1:24 pm

Edit

Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"

Yesh Atid MK Merav Ben-Ari addresses the Knesset plenum, June 25, 2025. (Dani Shem-Tov/ Office of the Knesset Spokesperson)

As the Knesset summer session ends, opposition coordinator Merav Ben Ari (Yesh Atid) slams Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “minority government” and “failed coalition.”

The exit of the Haredi Shas and United Torah Judaism parties from government means that the welfare, health, labor, interior, and housing ministries are all without a minister, she notes, adding that, at the same time, the Knesset ethics, labor, and interior committees have effectively been shut down.

She points out that the coalition has also failed to pass its “Haredi evasion law,” promised media reforms, and other flagship bills into law.

For months, Haredi boycotts have prevented the advancement of private member bills by coalition members while “the minority government dropped from 68 MKs to 61 or 50, depending on how you count,” she states.

“But the main thing is that they applied fake sovereignty [over the West Bank] in a meaningless and toothless motion of order and ousted the chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in time of war.”

Yesterday, the Knesset passed a non-binding resolution calling to annex the West Bank, while Likud lawmakers overwhelmingly supported replacing Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein with MK Boaz Bismuth in an internal faction vote.

With UTJ’s exit, the coalition dropped to 61 seats. Shas, which has 11 seats, left the government but not the coalition. Avi Maoz, the far-right Noam party’s sole MK, recently announced his withdrawal from the coalition, bringing it down to 60 seats.