From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, June 8, 2022
Reports: Rebel coalition MK will again oppose key bill if it’s up for vote next week
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Meretz MK Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi, who voted on Monday against a critical measure to renew the application of Israeli criminal and civil law to Israelis living in the West Bank, tells her associates that she’ll again downvote such a measure if it is brought to the Knesset plenum next week, according to Channel 12 news and Haaretz.
Since the vote, Rinawie Zoabi and fellow renegade coalition MK Mazen Ghanaim (Ra’am) have been facing intense pressure to resign, as the coalition struggles to stay afloat and regain its ability to pass laws.
The bill was defeated in a 52-58 vote after the Islamist Ra’am party’s other MKs and rebel Yamina MK Idit Silman were absent from the plenum.
This morning, Rinawie Zoabi tweeted that when she agreed to stay part of the coalition after threatening to bolt, she said she “would not support laws that go against my conscience and harm Arab society and the Palestinian issue.”
The defeated bill, enacted every five years since 1967, would renew a measure extending Israeli criminal law and certain key civil laws — such as income tax and health insurance — to Israelis living in the West Bank. The measure ensures that settlers living there are treated as though they live in Israel in most matters, without extending those same legal protections to Palestinians.
Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar has previously said that passage of this law is crucial to the future of the coalition.
The Times of Israel Community.