Less than one week after the governing coalition failed to pass legislation extending Israel's authority over the West Bank settlements, the cabinet on Sunday unanimously approved the bill, announcing it would be tabled for an additional Knesset vote.
During the weekly meeting, cabinet ministers also discussed repercussions should the legislation fail to pass yet again, although Justice Minister Gideon Saar said the bill will be tabled in the Knesset at an appropriate time.
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Justice Minister Gideon Saar, Deputy Attorney General Raz Nazri and Israeli settlements
(Photo: Yoav Dudkevich, Reuters )
"It is critical that this law is passed before the end of June," Saar said. "We will resubmit it for a vote when we are satisfied that all coalition members have done their bit to ensure its success," he said.
Saar told ministers that without the legislation, police stations in the West Bank will be severed from the rest of the force and criminals will use the area to escape the law. "People fail to understand the implications," he said.
He also told ministers that settlers will lose basic civil rights including adoption rights, inheritance rights, motor vehicle licenses, and more including some professions becoming off limits to settlers , ho will no longer be considered equal under the Israeli law.
Deputy Attorney General Raz Nazri said chaos would be an "understatement," should the bill fail to pass before it expires. "We will not have the authority to detain 3,000 security prisoners now held in the West Bank," he said.
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Prime Minister Naftali Bennett during Sunday's cabinet meeting
(Photo: Yoav Dudkevitch)
When asked by Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked asked Nazri if residents of the area will lose their government stipends, he said, "Come July 1, national security stipends might be problematic. There are ways around the problem, such as depending on the military's assistance, but I would not count on that option too much," he said.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett slammed the right-wing opposition for voting against the legislation in last week's vote.
"There is a group of legislators who say they will sow chaos if they are not in charge," Bennett said. "One man is walking around with a jug of oil to burn down the entire forest. There has never been such behavior from any opposition," he said, calling on his ministers to articulate the same to the media.
But the vote did not only fail because of the opposition. Last week's legislative failure came after Arab members of the coalition also voted against the bill, while were absent from the plenum.
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Meretz MK Ghaida Rinawi-Zoabi votes against West Bank bill last week
(Photo: Yoav Dudkevitch )
Meretz lawmaker Ghaida Rinawi-Zoabi said on Twitter on Sunday that she has no intention of compromising and supporting the bill she had vehemently opposed before.
Her and Ra'am legislator Mazen Ghanaim, have both come under pressure to resign from the Knesset if they are unable to support the coalition. Both have thus far refused.