The chairman of the ruling coalition in Israel, Ofir Katz, said today that bills proposed by one of the coalition partners, the "Otzma Yehudit" ("Jewish Power") party, will not receive the coalition's support, nothing will be included in the Knesset agenda, the Israeli news agency Tazpit Press Service (TPS), quoted by BTA.
This move was taken after the leader of "Otzma Yehudit" Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is the Minister of Internal Security, forced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to leave hospital early to vote on a law in parliament on Tuesday. Another MK from Netanyahu's Likud party, Boaz Bismuth, had to interrupt his week of mourning for his mother to vote.
"Only bills from the Ministry of Homeland Security that have a bearing on the country's security will be considered on their merits", Katz said in a statement. "We will not tolerate such serious and lasting damage to the stability of the coalition and its behavior. It is unthinkable that they apologize and at the same time promise to continue disrupting the work of the coalition," he warned.
The law, which passed Tuesday by a 59-58 vote, allows the Israeli government to tax profits of corporations and multinationals set aside for investments in the growth of their businesses, infrastructure and scientific research. Its eventual rejection would have opened a deficit of 10 billion shekels ($2.74 billion) and jeopardized the approval of the state budget.
By law, the Knesset must adopt the budget by March 31 or the government will automatically fall, triggering general elections.
Eight MKs from the ruling coalition voted against the law - five from Ben-Gvir's "Otzma Yehudit" and three from the "United Torah Judaism" party.
Ben-Gvir is pushing for increased budgets for the police, prison service and fire departments. The "United Torah Judaism" party in turn is demanding legislation to exempt ultra-Orthodox Jews from military service.
Ben-Gvir apologized last night for forcing Netanyahu and Bismuth to come to the Knesset, and promised his party would compensate in parliament for the vote of the Israeli prime minister, who will be absent for the next two weeks due to health problems.
Netanyahu, 75, is recovering from prostate surgery and left the hospital to vote against the advice of his doctors. He was accompanied to the Knesset session by his personal doctor and wore his hospital bracelet. Netanyahu was discharged from the hospital on Thursday.
A court today suspended his corruption trial for two weeks after his lawyers said his doctors had asked him to rest during that period.