Otzma Yehudit halts coalition support, accuses PM of hiding details of hostage deal

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party announced on Wednesday that it was reserving the right to not vote with the coalition in the Knesset until Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reveals details of an Israeli proposal for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal.

“In light of the fact that the prime minister is hiding the draft agreement with Hamas that includes a clause to end the war, Otzma Yehudit will vote according to the dictates of its conscience and will not be committed to the coalition’s position in Knesset votes until the prime minister stops hiding the draft agreement,” the party said in a statement.

The threat is unlikely to have much effect in the immediate future, with few significant votes expected before mid-June in light of next week’s Shavuot holiday.

Ben Gvir and other far-right lawmakers have asserted they will not agree to a deal with Hamas that ends the war in exchange for the release of hostages, threatening to bring down the government if such a deal is adopted by the government.

Netanyahu has insisted any deal Israel signs will not include an end to the war.

On Monday, Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the head of the nationalist Religious Zionism party, accused Netanyahu of withholding details of the Israeli hostage deal proposal presented by US President Joe Biden last week, stating that neither had seen the full text of the proposal.

Speaking with members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee at a closed-door session on Monday, Netanyahu asserted that “the claim that we agreed to a ceasefire without our conditions being met is incorrect.”

“The proposal that Biden presented is incomplete,” he told lawmakers, citing “gaps” between the Israeli version and Biden’s recounting of it. US officials, in response, denied that such gaps existed.

Netanyahu’s assurances were not enough for his far-right partners.

“If the deal is not reckless and does not include a commitment to end the war for Hamas’s collapse, why do you refuse to present it to me?” Ben Gvir asked on Monday, accusing Netanyahu of “whitewashing” the proposal.

“If you sign a reckless deal that will bring an end to the war without the collapse of Hamas, Otzma Yehudit will dissolve the government,” he threatened.

Speaking with reporters outside a protest tent set up by the Heroism Forum, a group representing bereaved families pushing for increased military pressure on Hamas, Smotrich sounded a similar note, stating that Israel was not bound by the “offer of surrender” presented by Biden.

If the government decides to accept the proposal for a hostage agreement, which was made by the war cabinet “in violation of the law,” then “we will not be part of it,” he said. “If, God forbid, the government decides to accept this offer of surrender, we will not be part of it.”

Biden laid out a number of the offer’s key elements in a high-stakes speech last Friday.

According to him, the deal would see the remaining living female, elderly, and sick hostages abducted during the Hamas-led October 7 onslaught released during a six-week first phase. The second phase of the deal would see a permanent end to the war; and Biden said Hamas would not remain in power in Gaza, but did not detail how that would come about.

Also during the first phase, Israel and Hamas would hold negotiations regarding the terms of a permanent ceasefire and the release of the remaining living hostages in the second phase. The third phase would see the release of the bodies of hostages and the commencement of an internationally backed reconstruction plan for Gaza.

Ben Gvir moves location of the meeting so the families can’t be inside. Einav Zangauker, mother of Hamas hostage Matan Zangauker, is outside screaming that he snuck out the back and is scared to face her. Security is keeping them out. Can hear her outside as they set up new room pic.twitter.com/R6HG12MBCQ

— Sam Sokol (@SamuelSokol) June 3, 2024

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid has offered to provide Netanyahu with a political safety net if his far-right coalition partners pull out of the government over the hostage-ceasefire deal.

This is not the first time that Ben Gvir has stated he will stop voting with the coalition.

In April, Otzma Yehudit temporarily announced that it was no longer bound by coalition discipline, following opposition by ultra-Orthodox coalition parties to an expansion of Ben Gvir’s authority over the government’s Real Estate Enforcement Division. It also did so in May of last year, complaining of government inaction on West Bank terror.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.