Ahead of this week’s vote in the Knesset on the approval of the budget, Ra’am chairman Mansour Abbas approached government officials and asked for an allocation of 100 million shekels from his party's coalition funds for the benefit of the haredi sector, Kan 11 News reported on Monday.
Amid the party’s confrontation with the Likud, it appears that Ra’am is trying to maintain political ties with the haredim. According to Monday’s report, Abbas told government officials, "We have a weakened alliance with haredi society."
Meanwhile, due to the minimal majority it has when it comes to the support for the budget, the coalition is preparing for the vote and the coalition leaders have appointed Knesset members whose responsibility will be to monitor those who are present at the vote and report whether any of them leave the plenum. The various Knesset factions will monitor every movement of a Knesset member who steps out of the plenum.
The coalition is also preparing for a scenario in which a Knesset member defects at the last minute, and has prepared in advance proposals that have been custom made for Knesset members in the opposition in exchange for those MKs supporting the budgets. Most of these MKs are from the predominantly Arab Joint List party, but there are also MKs from other factions.