Bennett to opposition: Show ‘national responsibility’ on Citizenship Law

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Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called on the opposition to vote in favor of the Citizenship Law, saying that “playing” with the security of the country was a “redline” and called on the opposition parties to put national responsibility ahead of politics. 

Speaking at a Yamina faction meeting Monday afternoon, Bennett said that the state needed to control who enters the country and who gets citizenship, and asserted that opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu was well aware of a Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) assessment that failure to pass the law would harm Israeli security. 

Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked who is leading the negotiations within the coalition said at the same meeting that as yet there was still no majority for the law but said she “hoped and believed” that a majority would be achieved when the law comes to a vote in the plenum Monday night. 

Netanyahu rejected Bennett’s call, accusing him of having “cooked up a porridge” of a government with left-wing Meretz and the Arab Ra’am Party, and said it was Bennett’s responsibility if he could not pass the Citizenship Law. 

After the contentious Citizenship Law failed to pass the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday morning, opposition members will meet soon to decide how they will vote when the law reaches the Knesset plenum later today.

Foreign Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) said however they vote, the coalition will not fall apart. However, he warned that not passing the law could increase terrorism in Israel. 

Coalition partners Ra’am and Meretz oppose the law, a temporary measure first passed in 2003 which stops Palestinians who marry Israelis from obtaining Israeli citizenship on security grounds, and have promised to vote against it, denying the government a majority in the plenum. 

Last week Meretz MK and Regional Cooperation Minister Esawi Frej proposed to extend the law by just six months instead of a year and convene a ministerial committee to find a solution to humanitarian issues arising from the law. 

The suggestion appeared to have foundered but reports in the Hebrew media suggest that Shaked is now considering the compromise with the law is set to expire on Tuesday. 

The opposition have denounced the coalition for its failure to pass the law due to the presence of Ra’am and Meretz in the government.Religious Zionist Party head Betzalel Smotrich said his party would vote against the law, citing the government’s siding with “anti-Zionist and post-Zionist parties.””This government is galloping into the abyss, threatening to smash the State of Israel with it, and asking us to be a spare wheel that will allow them to continue galloping into the abyss,” Smotrich said at a faction meeting. “We will not give in to this”

Head of the opposition and Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded that the Citizenship Law be passed as a two month measure during which time the Likud’s stringent immigration law which would permanently deny family reunification to Palestinians marrying Israelis would be legislated. 

The coalition has rejected this offer. 

Netanyahu has not yet stated how the Likud will vote, with some murmurings of discontent against his stance coming from Likud MK Avi Dichter who has said the law must be approved on national security grounds. 

Smotrich denounced the coalition over its failure to pass the Citizenship Law on Monday morning, alleging that they had formed “a dangerous government with a post-Zionist Left and anti-Zionist terrorism supporters” and yet will not negotiate with the opposition to pass its immigration law.

“The temporary law is full of holes and bad, and we have no interest in passing it just so the coalition will survive,” said Smotrich. 



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