Opposition leader Yair Lapid completed the process of signing coalition agreements with the eight parties that will part of the new coalition on Friday.
Yamina and Yesh Atid signed their coalition agreement ahead of Sunday's formation of a unity government.
“The signing of these agreements brings to an end two and a half years of political crisis. The government will work for all the Israeli public - religious, secular, ultra-Orthodox, Arab – without exception, as one. We will work together, out of partnership and national responsibility, and I believe we will succeed," said incoming Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
“The Israeli public deserves a functioning and responsible government which places the good of the country at the top of its agenda. That's what this unity government has been formed to do. All the partners in this government are committed, first and foremost, to the people of Israel," said Lapid.
Lapid was the first to sign a historic agreement with the Ra'am (United Arab List) Party on Friday morning. The overarching agreement calls for closing the Strategic Affairs Ministry, the Community Advancement Ministry, the Water Ministry and the Digital Ministry.
The coalition will work to build two hospitals, one in the Negev and one in the Galilee, another airport, a university in the Galilee, will provide help for the tourism ministry hurt by the coronavirus, will construct 300,000 low-cost apartments throughout the country, and will work to raise the percentage of Israelis employed in the hi-tech industry to 15% of the population.
On matters of religion and state, the new coalition supports competition in the Kosher services, enabling municipal rabbis to convert people and changing the voting body that elects the chief rabbi to ensure that the Zionist chief rabbi is elected. Other key aspects of the coalition deals include forming an operative plan to curb crime within the Arab sector and advancing reforms that will ensure mental health for disabled IDF veterans. Whether the new coalition would pass a bill that would prevent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from running again - remains undecided. They decided to back term limits but did not decide their extent or whether he would be grandfathered in.
Ra'am will be the first Arab party in the governing coalition since the Arab List for Bedouin and Villagers in Yitzhak Rabin's first term as prime minister in 1974-1977.
The deal gives Ra'am a deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Office that will deal with Arab affairs and the chairmanship of the Knesset interior committee and committee on Arab society.
The new government will invest 2.5 billion NIS over five years in fighting crime in the Arab sector. It will also invest 20 billions NIS for transportation in the Arab sector by 2030. Additionally, another 100 million NIS will be allocated over 5 years for infrastructure projects in Arab communities. Three unrecognized Bedouin villages, Abda, Rahma, Hisham-Zan will be recognized and developed.
An agreement was also reached overnight with the Yisrael Beytenu party. The agreement calls for term limits for prime minister of two terms of 8 years, public transportation on Shabbat, and implementing the Western Wall agreement that was reached in 2016 and canceled in 2017 due to pressure from United Torah Judaism.
Yisrael Beytenu will be given the Finance Ministry for its leader Avigdor Lieberman, another minister in the Finance Ministry, a minister of agriculture who will also control the Negev and Galilee development portfolio, and the chairmanship of the Knesset finance committee and the new committee monitoring the progress of national projects.On Friday afternoon, Yesh Atid signed an agreement with Labor. The deal gives Labor the Transportation, Public Security and Diaspora Affairs portfolios. A department responsible for advancing progressive Judaism will be created in the Diaspora Affairs Ministry for the first time. Labor leader Merav Michaeli will serve as transportation minister and will head a new ministerial committee on promoting gender equality. MK Omer Bar Lev will be public security minister, a post held thirty years ago by his father, Haim Bar Lev. The Diaspora Affairs minister will be former-Labor MK Nachman Shai, who has vast experience dealing with diaspora issues as a former-Israel director of the Jewish Federations of North America.
A deal was reached on Thursday with Meretz.The agreement with New Hope calls for splitting the role of the attorney general, hiring 50 inspectors to prevent Palestinian building in the West Bank's Israeli-controlled Area C, developing the Golan Heights and decriminalizing the use of cannabis. Blue and White's deal gives Defense Ministry to departing head Benny Gantz, the Integration and Aliyah portfolio will remain with Tamano-Shata, the Culture and Sports portfolio will stay with Chili Tropper and the party will be given the Science and Technology portfolio. The agreement calls for passing a bill to draft yeshiva students to the IDF, forming a commission of inquiry for the Meron disaster and bringing more immigrants from Ethiopia to Israel. A dispute over the appointment of a deputy defense minister for Gantz was postponed until after the formation of the government. All the agreements were successfully reached by the 4pm deadline on Friday.