Israeli PM Bennett loses majority after ruling coalition whip quits over religious ground

Jerusalem, April 6

Israel’s fragile government on Wednesday was reduced to minority in the 120-member House with the ruling coalition’s whip quitting on religious grounds, raising the possibility of elections in the Jewish nation in less than a year after Prime Minister Naftali Bennett took charge.

Idit Silman of Prime Minister Bennett’s Yamina party quit the government, surviving on a razor-thin margin, over the question of “Jewish values” related to a dispute about Passover “matzo” rules.

“I can no longer serve in a coalition that is adversarial towards the values we all hold dear,” Silman said in a letter to the Prime Minister, urging him also to join forces with the right wing.

The coalition now holds just 60 seats in the 120-member Knesset (Israeli Parliament).

Bennett’s shaky government remains in power following the defection but will face severe challenges legislating on key issues.

Silman opposed allowing people to bring leavened bread and other foodstuffs into public hospitals—products prohibited according to religious tradition during the Passover holiday—leading to a public spat with Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz who had decided to allow entry of such products into hospitals during the Passover, a major Jewish holiday that celebrates the exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.

For some devout Jews, the mere presence of such foods in the hospital is not kosher, but the country’s Supreme Court ruled in 2021 that hospitals could not bar people from doing so.

The coalition, seen by many as an assembly of strange bedfellows from eight political parties of all ideological hues, ranging from Islamists to hard-line nationalists and dovish liberals, was glued together in its opposition to former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that it wanted to oust from power.

Some members of Bennett’s party have been uncomfortable with Yamina’s union with Islamist and liberal parties since the government’s formation in June last year which has kept his confidantes on their toes permanently.

One of the seven elected members of the party broke ranks at the inception and has maintained his opposition to the coalition.

Bennett rushed to summon Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, his longtime political partner, and others to ensure they too did not leave his coalition and join hands with the Opposition.

The Knesset is on a break and it remains unclear if the Opposition will now have enough support to hold a no-confidence vote and send Israelis to the spectacle of fifth elections in just over three years’ time.

Local media reports talked of Silman striking a deal with Netanyahu over a secure spot in the Likud party list if fresh elections were called, and even the health ministry if the former premier was to form a new government.