Middle East Monitor / April 7, 2022
Arab-Israeli MK Sami Abou Shehadah said yesterday that Balad Party will not be “lifeline” to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
Speaking to the Nazareth-based Radio Al Shams, Abou Shehadah said that his party “will not provide a safety net” for Bennett.
He said that the party will meet in the coming days to discuss “all the options available to us,” stressing that his party will also not help former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Meanwhile, Joint List party Chief, Ayman Odeh, said that all the Arab parties “will not be a lifeline” for Bennett. “We are apparently heading for elections,” Odeh told the leading Israeli daily Haaretz.
These remarks came as the Israeli government was thrown into turmoil yesterday morning after coalition whip Idit Silman announced her intention to join the opposition, The Times of Israel reported, leaving the coalition without a majority.
Currently, the government has only 60 seats in the 120-member Knesset.
The Joint List is composed of three factions: Communist Arab-Jewish Hadash Party, the Palestinian nationalist Balad Party and Ta’al, led by Ahmad Tibi.
Bennett’s coalition government includes the Islamist Ra’am Party, which broke from the Joint List to back the formation of a coalition government.
