Israeli parliament disbands, holds fresh elections

JERUSALEM: The dissolution of parliament was overwhelmingly agreed upon by Israeli MPs on Tuesday, putting the nation one step closer to its sixth general election in less than four years.

Outgoing coalition members of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett have been clashing with opposition members headed by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over a dissolution measure since last week.

After Bennett stated last week that his year-old ideologically split eight-party collaboration was no longer tenable, the coalition showed its desired swift adoption of the law.

There have already been negotiations to establish a new administration headed by Netanyahu and his supporters in the present parliament, averting further elections.

In the end, the two parties decided late Monday to go forward with a measure that would be signed into law by Wednesday’s end.

Israeli Prime Minister’s attempts to create a new administration seem to have stagnated because of the opposition’s willingness to dismiss parliament.

A Knesset committee adopted the measure early on Tuesday morning. As a result, it was presented to the full plenum and approved with a vote of 53-0.

New elections would be placed on October 25 or November 1, depending on additional discussions, according to the law.

The bill must then be approved in two further full Knesset votes.

Benjamin Bennett and Yair Lapid agreed to a power-sharing pact after last year’s inconclusive elections, and they will pass power over at midnight when Parliament adjourns.

As soon as it was formed, the Bennett coalition, which included a wide range of religious and secular nationalists, centrists, liberals, and Arab Islamists, was at risk because of its ideological differences.

The refusal to renew legislation ensuring that Jewish residents in the occupied West Bank are subjected to Israeli law was the last straw, according to the PM.

“Constitutional disaster,”

According to Bennett, a former leader of a settler advocacy organisation, if the law had expired on June 30, it would have been a disaster.

The so-called West Bank bill will stay in effect if parliament is dissolved before the end of its term.

In what might have been his last public event as premier, Bennett said his time in charge had been “amazing” for Israel after “tumultuous years of elections”.

“I think in this one year we did about 10 years of work, and I’m pretty darn happy about that,” he told Tel Aviv University’s Cyber Week conference.

Bennett, a religious nationalist, said his alliance with the centrist Lapid – a man he once promised never to partner with – brought stability after years of gridlock.

“I’m not happy about the elections; it’s certainly not good for Israel, but it is what it is,” he said.