Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will end his duties on Sunday, after 12 continuous years in power, to move to the opposition, after members of the new government make a declaration of loyalty in the parliament’s plenary, according to The Eastern Herald’s correspondent in Israel.
The Israeli parliament (the Knesset) will hold a special session starting at 16:00 (13:00 GMT) to vote on granting the “Change Coalition”, which includes eight parties, each with its own ideologies, to end nearly two years of political stalemate in Israel, which included four elections. indecisive.
At the last moment, the architect of the coalition, head of the Yesh Atid party, Yair Lapid, formed the government coalition in alliance with seven parties, two from the left, two from the center, and three from the right, including the ultra-nationalist Yamina party, and an Arab party, the United Arab List.
If the new coalition is granted confidence, Naftali Bennett of the national-religious Yamina party will head the government for two years, followed by the centrist Yair Lapid in 2023, according to the alliance agreement between these formations.
This government will consist of 28 ministers and 6 deputy ministers. This is the first government in the country’s history in which an Arab party, the United Arab List, participates.
On Friday, the Yamina and Yesh Atid parties announced the signing of a coalition agreement to form a national unity government. “The signing of these agreements ends two and a half years of political crisis,” Yamina leader Naftali Bennett said, noting “great challenges.”
The right-wing leader said the next government would “work for the benefit of the entire Israeli public – religious, secular, ultra-Orthodox and Arab – without exception as one group”. “I think we will succeed,” he added.
For his part, former TV presenter Yair Lapid said that “the Israeli public deserves an effective and responsible government that puts the interest of the state at the top of its agenda,” stressing that “all partners in this government are committed (…) to the people of Israel.”
Unless there is a last-minute shift, the government is expected to gain confidence. After the Knesset vote, the formal handover of power is supposed to take place on Monday in the Prime Minister’s Office.
Today, Parliament is also scheduled to elect a new Speaker of the Knesset, replacing the current Speaker, Yariv Levin, as the coalition nominated Representative Mickey Levy for this position.
Netanyahu, 71, was once again the target of fresh protests on Saturday night. In front of his official residence in Jerusalem, the demonstrators did not wait for a vote to celebrate the “fall” of “King Bibi,” Netanyahu’s title, who assumed prime minister for the second time in 2009, after three years in office from 1996 to 1999.
