Fifty-two of the MKs in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Right-religious bloc signed a pledge on Wednesday to not join a minority government formed by Blue and White leader Benny Gantz.
The pledge is intended to make it harder for Gantz to build a coalition. It refers to a scenario in which Gantz builds a 44-MK minority coalition with Labor-Gesher and the Democratic Union that is backed from outside by the Joint List and Yisrael Beytenu to prevent it from falling.
The Likud has been pressuring Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman to make a similar commitment.
The signatories from Likud, Shas, United Torah Judaism and the National Union-Bayit Yehudi pledged that they would only enter a government led by Netanyahu, either a right-wing coalition or a unity government with a rotation in the Prime Minister's Office.
The three MKs from the New Right – Ayelet Shaked, Naftali Bennett and Matan Kahane – refused to sign the document, calling the pledge "unnecessary."