Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked postponed Wednesday’s vote on the controversial family reunification bill to next Monday, just ahead of Tuesday night’s deadline, because she has still not succeeded in drafting enough support to pass it.
MKs from Ra’am (United Arab List), Meretz and Labor MK Ibtisam Mara’ana oppose the bill, which would continue to prevent Palestinians from obtaining Israeli citizenship by marrying Arab-Israelis.
Ra’am head Mansour Abbas and Mara’ana addressed a demonstration of mixed Palestinian and Israeli families across from the Knesset on Tuesday.
Shaked met with all the Ra’am MKs and told them if they prevent the bill from passing, she would have no choice but to accept opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s offer to help pass a two-month extension of the current family reunification ordinance in return for the coalition backing the passage of a stronger immigration law.
The immigration bill initiated by Religious Zionist Party MK Simcha Rothman is much more strict and would fine Palestinians who violate the family reunification law.
Shaked told the Ra’am MKs she would support humanitarian steps for such families but would not change a word in the bill.
The Likud mocked the coalition for delaying the vote for a fourth time.
“There has never been such a failing and faltering coalition,” the Likud said in a statement. “That is what happens when a dangerous left-wing government depends on the votes of anti-Zionists.”
But Likud MK Avi Dichter, who is a former head of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), has been trying to persuade MKs in his party to vote with the coalition and pass the family reunification bill. He has been telling them to put security ahead of politics.
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid told reporters in Abu Dhabi he understood the situation Ra’am is in. But he said he was not worried about the coalition, which did not lose a single vote during the Likud’s all-night filibuster on Monday night.
“Vote after vote, bill after bill, we win, and we are authorizing government decisions on Sundays,” Lapid said. “It’s true that this is a narrow coalition, and the majority is narrow. I’m sure we’ll lose some votes like the previous government did. But I don’t feel that it’s failing at all.”
Lapid said he was sure the rotation in the Prime Minister’s Office would happen and that he would succeed Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who he said he trusts as a friend.
“I’m not sitting and waiting for the rotation; I’m working,” Lapid said. “The political constellation means we’re working with a rotation. But we have one prime minister, and it’s Naftali Bennett. We work excellently together.”
The Likud continued its new policy of shaming its own MKs on social media for missing votes in the Knesset plenum. In a Facebook post on Tuesday night, the Likud said MK Yuli Edelstein had violated faction discipline by pairing off with Lapid, and Dichter did the same with Defense Minister Benny Gantz. The post also singled out Likud MKs Keren Barak and Fateen Mulla.
“They caused great harm to the nationalist camp,” the Likud wrote in the post.
Lahav Harkov contributed to this report.