Before entering Monday's cabinet meeting, Minister Issawi Frej (Meretz) commented on the Citizenship Law recently passed by the Knesset and insisted that this was an area of legitimate dispute in the coalition.
"This is a bad law for Jews and the State of Israel," he said. "We will continue to fight the bad things the government is doing, and encourage the good things."
Asked what repercussions there would be to the passage of the law, Frej replied: "Good repercussions."
Frej also claimed that despite media reports stating that tree-planting in the Negev would soon resume, the opposite was the case, and no planting would be taking place in parts of the Negev where Bedouin live.
Tree-planting under the auspices of the Jewish National Fund has been a regular event in Israel for decades, but two months ago, mass Arab riots in the Negev led to the planting being suspended.
Senior sources in the coalition have claimed that one of the reasons for the timing of the decision to renew the planting is that the Knesset's winter session has ended, so the United Arab List (Ra'am) will not be able to respond by boycotting votes in the near future.