LATEST: Senior Hamas Official Calls for Dissolution of Palestinian Unity Government
UPDATE 1300 GMT: Claims are circulating that the left-wing Meretz Party will propose the dissolution of Knesset on Wednesday, raising the possibility of early national elections.
Meretz chairman Zehava Gal-On issued a press release on Tuesday criticizing PM Netanyahu’s initial support for the Jewish Nation-State bill which has been proposed:
This bill combines the democratic system and the legal system under [right-wing MK Ze’ev] Elkin’s Jewish nationalism. [It] states that Arabic is not an official language, that new legislation will be in the spirit of Jewish law, and that the State will act to build Jewish settlements but not for other nationalities who live here.”
Gal-On assured that no one is trying to undermine the right of the Jewish people to a sovereign state in Israel, guaranteed under the 1947 UN Partition Plan and a guiding principle for the country’s Declaration of Independence and myriad of by-laws.
The Meretz leader claimed that the recent surge in violence in Israel, Jerusalem, and the West Bank is not against the Israel State, but against the Netanyahu Government:
The entire world is not against us; it’s against Netanyahu. The truth is, there is no contradiction between Israel being a nation-state of the Jewish people and demands directed at us to leave the territories [of Judaea and Sumeria], end the occupation, and to give equal rights to all citizens of Israel.
Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Haredi Party has claimed that it was approached by politicians and businessmen, urging it to join in a new Government coalition replacing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
According to two Haredi members of the Knesset, the new Government would be led by the current Finance Minister and leader of the Yesh Atid Party, Yair Lapid, and the leader of the Labor Party, Isaac Herzog.
Yaakov Litzman said one offer was made by a businessman affiliated with Lapid and the second came from a “political figure”.
Netanyahu has been under pressure both from center-left Ministers such as Lapid, critical of the Government’s handling of the collapsed peace process with Palestine, and from right-wing Ministers who want expansion of Israeli Jewish settlements in Palestinian territory and tougher security measures in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
On Sunday, the Prime Minister raised tensions further by overriding Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and ordering consideration of a bill enshrining Israel as a “Jewish State”.
Netanyahu said the bill will not be presented to a Ministerial Committee for a second time, but will be debated next week by the Cabinet, which could forward the legislation to the Knesset for a vote.
Last week, Science, Technology and Space Minister Yaakov Peri said Yesh Atid would have to reconsider its position in the government over the Netanyahu’s increased “leaning to the right, apparently because of internal party considerations”.
From the right, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett said the government should step down if it could not check violence in Jerusalem: “A government that does not know how to regain deterrence and sovereignty and provide security for its citizens in their capital does not have a right to exist.”
Senior Hamas Official Calls for Dissolution of Palestinian Unity Government
Senior Hamas official Ismail Rawdan has called for the dissolution of the Fatah-dominated Palestinian unity government, which was launched in June.
In an interview on Sunday, Rawdan said the government has failed to hold elections, as agreed in a six-month development road map, and to implement reconstruction projects in Gaza.
Earlier this month, tensions between Hamas and Fatah rose when the homes and cars of the latter’s officials in Gaza were bombed.
Unrest After Palestinian Found Dead in Northwest Jerusalem Overnight
Widespread unrest is reported in several of East Jerusalem’s predominantly-Arab neighborhoods this morning after Hassan Yousef Rammouni, a Palestinian bus driver, was found hanging inside a public transportation bus at the Har Hotzvim terminal in the northwest of the city overnight.
While initial police investigations point towards suicide, Palestinian media are circulating claims of lynching, based on several images of the bus driver’s body which show signs of violence.
Protests have been called throughout the West Bank, and Arab bus drivers in Israel will stage a strike today. Residents of Abu Dis, another Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem, have also announced a general strike, including the closure of municipal offices and educational institutions.
