A member of the left-wing Meretz party, a member of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's coalition, announced her resignation on Thursday, May 19, weakening the government coalition already undermined by another defection.
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MK Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi, a 49-year-old Israeli Arab, announced her departure in a letter denouncing the government's policy towards Israeli Arabs, the descendants of Palestinians who remained on their lands when Israel was created in 1948 and representing 20% of the country's population.
“
I cannot continue to support the existence of a coalition which shamelessly attacks the society from which I come
,” she wrote in her letter, addressed to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Yair Lapid, a copy of which was obtained by AFP.
She accuses the leaders of the motley coalition led by Naftali Bennett and bringing together parties from the right, center, left and an Arab formation, of having "
strengthened the right wing
" of the coalition in recent months, due to , “
narrow political considerations
”.
They "
preferred to opt again and again for belligerent, rigid and right-wing positions on fundamental issues of the utmost importance for Arab society
", she wrote, citing in particular "
colonization, occupation and demolition of houses in Arab localities
”.
“Violent police” against the faithful
Last month "
was particularly difficult
" due to images of "
violent police clashing with worshipers at Al-Aqsa (mosque)
" as well as images from the funeral in Jerusalem of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh who was shot in the the head.
These images, which have made the rounds on social networks, show police officers charging into a crowd waving Palestinian flags and beating the pallbearers of the coffin, which almost fell to the ground, with truncheons.
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The departure of Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi comes six weeks after the resignation of the deputy of the radical right party Yamina Idit Silman, who had placed the coalition on parity with the opposition.
The coalition is now in the minority with 59 elected against 61, out of a total of 120 deputies in the Israeli Parliament (Knesset).
According to Asaf Shapira of the Israel Democratic Institute, an analysis center in Jerusalem, however, it is unlikely that 61 lawmakers will form an alternative government.
The other "
real option
" is for the Knesset to dissolve leading to a snap election with the support of 61 members, he said.
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