[8]
NETANYAHU KONDIGT OP VALREEP MEEST RECHTSE
ISRAELISCHE REGERING OOIT AAN
22 DECEMBER 2022
De Israëlische oud-premier Benjamin Netanyahu heeft een nieuwe, ultrarechtse regering gevormd. Het wordt de meest rechtse regering in de geschiedenis van het land. Netanyahu’s conservatieve partij Likud gaat regeren met religieus-nationalistische partners.
De deadline verliep woensdagavond, maar vlak daarvoor stelde Netanyahu president Isaac Herzog ervan op de hoogte dat hij eruit was met zijn coalitiepartners.
Likud won de parlementsverkiezingen van 1 november. De partij sleepte 32 zetels binnen. Dat was het beste resultaat in de partijgeschiedenis, maar onvoldoende om zelfstandig te regeren. Als grootste partij kreeg Likud wel het mandaat om als eerste te proberen een regering te vormen.
Dat mandaat verliep eigenlijk begin december, maar Netanyahu kreeg van president Herzog tien dagen extra, tot 22 december middernacht.
Ultra-orthodoxe partijen zijn voor annexatie en tegen gelijke rechten
Met de steun van de ultra-orthodoxe partijen kan de nieuwe regering rekenen op 64 van de 120 zetels in het parlement. Wanneer de nieuwe regering wordt beëdigd en hoe de ministersposten zijn verdeeld is nog niet bekend. Naar verwachting zullen de leiders van de ultra-orthodoxe partijen een plek in het kabinet krijgen.
Zij hebben zich in het verleden uitgesproken voor onder meer annexatie van de door Israël bezette Westelijke Jordaanoever. Ook spraken ze zich uit voor ruimere bevoegdheden voor het leger om geweld te gebruiken en tegen gelijke rechten voor vrouwen en de lhbtiq+-gemeenschap.
Netanyahu (73) was van 1996 tot 1999 al premier van Israël en van 2009 tot 2021 opnieuw.
EINDE BERICHT
BBC
ISRAEL’S MOST RIGHT-WING GOVERNMENT AGREED UNDER
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU
22 DECEMBER 2022
A new government seen as the most right-wing in Israel’s history has been agreed, sealing Benjamin Netanyahu’s return to power.
Mr Netanyahu, who won elections in November, is set to serve an historic sixth term as prime minster.
His coalition contains far-right parties, including one whose leader was once convicted of anti-Arab racism.
Palestinians fear the new government will also strengthen Israel’s hold on the occupied West Bank.
“I have managed [to form a government],” Mr Netanyahu tweeted, just minutes before a midnight local time (22:00 GMT) deadline set by the Israeli President, Isaac Herzog.
It will take over from the outgoing centre-left caretaker government when it is sworn in, which is expected to happen next week.
Mr Netanyahu’s coalition partners reject the idea of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict – the internationally backed formula for peace which envisages an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank alongside Israel, with Jerusalem as their shared capital.
The leader of the Religious Zionism party, which in alliance with two other far-right parties won the third largest number of seats in the knesset (parliament), wants to see Israel annex the West Bank and has been given wide powers over its activities there.
Israel occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 war. More than 600,000 Jewish settlers live in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The settlements they live in are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this. Israel pulled its settlers and troops out of the Gaza Strip in 2005.
Israeli opposition politicians, as well as its attorney general, have warned that reforms planned by the incoming government – including giving MPs the right to overrule Supreme Court decisions – threaten to undermine Israeli democracy.
Coalition partners have also proposed legal reforms which could end Mr Netanyahu’s ongoing trial on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Mr Netanyahu denies any wrongdoing.
Israeli opposition and civil rights groups have expressed particular alarm at the inclusion of the far-right in the new government.
Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party leader Itamar Ben-Gvir is known for his anti-Arab comments and has called for the relaxation of rules on when security forces can open fire in the face of threats. Once convicted of incitement to racism and supporting a terror organisation, he is set to become national security minister with authority over the police in Israel and the West Bank.
The other far-right partner in government, Avi Maoz of the anti-LGBT Noam party, has called for Jerusalem’s Gay Pride event to be banned, disapproves of equal opportunities for women in the military, and wants to limit Jewish immigration to Israel to those defined as such according to Jewish religious law.
Mr Netanyahu has accused critics of fearmongering and has vowed to preserve the status quo.
“I’ll have two hands firmly on the steering wheel,” he told US broadcaster NPR last week. “I won’t let anybody do anything to LGBT or to deny our Arab citizens their rights or anything like that, it just won’t happen. And the test of time will prove that.”
END