Lawmakers will vote Sunday, June 13, to approve the new government put together last week by Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin said Tuesday.
The vote will be held in a special session as the Knesset goes not normally convene on a Sunday.
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The heads of the parties that make up the coalition government in waiting
(Photo: Raanan Cohen)
The move will unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the country's longest-serving leader who has railed repeatedly against his political opponents as they worked to form their coalition of right-wing, left-wing, centrist and Arab parties.
"This is happening!" Lapid said on Twitter after Levin's announcement. "Thank you to Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin for setting the date of the inauguration for Sunday."
MKs will also vote Sunday to replace Levin as speaker, likely with Yesh Atid MK Mickey Levy, a former Jerusalem police chief.
Lapid said that the coalition agreements would be presented at least 24 hours before the vote as required by law.
"The unity government is going ahead to benefit the citizens of the State of Israel," he said.
If the new government wins the vote of confidence, which is expected as it has a parliamentary majority, it will be sworn in on the same day, marking the end of Netanyahu's 12-year run as prime minister and his replacement by far-right Yamina head Naftali Bennett.
Lapid informed President Reuven Rivlin last Wednesday that he and Bennett had managed to form a majority government.
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L-R: Yair Lapid, Naftali Bennett and Mansour Abbas signing their coalition agreement last week
(Photo: Reuters/Ra'am Handout)
The new coalition includes Yesh Atid and Yamina, along with centrist Blue & White, Meretz and Labor from the left, New Hope and Yisrael Beytenu on the right and for the first time in Israel's history an Arab party - the Islamist Ra'am.
Under the deal agreed by Bennett and Lapid, the former will serve first as prime minister, followed by the Yesh Atid leader after two years.
Bennett had urged Levin, a Netanyahu loyalist, to hold the Knesset vote this Wednesday, and called on the prime minister to "let go" and desist from any efforts to persuade members of the new coalition to defect and scupper its inauguration.
Netanyahu has tried in recent days to unpick the coalition, targeting right-wing MKs uncomfortable at the prospect of sharing power with left-wing and Arab parties.
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A rally held last week in central Israel in support of the new government. The banner reads: 'Rightists and leftists refuse to be enemies'
(Photo: Moti Kimchi)
One of the Netanyahu camp's targets was Yamina MK Nir Orbach, who had previously expressed reluctance to support the new government but who on Tuesday announced that he would back it.
"I have decided to vote for the unity government. it is not a simple decision but it is a necessary one in a reality of governmental instability, civil crisis, violent discourse, sense of chaos, and on the brink of civil war,” said Orbach following Levin’s announcement that the new government would be sworn in on Sunday.
"I have decided to put an end to the stalemate in Israeli politics," Orbach said, referring to Israel's four elections in two years and the fact that a fifth was likely had Bennett and Lapid been unsuccessful in their efforts.
The discourse around the formation of the new government led the head of the Shin Bet domestic security service Nadav Argaman to warn that the language of incitement being used could lead to violence, while some members of the nascent coalition were given extra protection due to threats.