Following the absence of Ra'am from the Knesset, the coalition lost Wednesday night in a preliminary reading vote on a law by MK Ahmad Tibi seeking the installation of body cameras on policemen at demonstrations. The coalition abandoned the plenum after the loss.
The opposition later succeeded in passing further bills in preliminary reading. Among other things, a bill was approved by the chairman of the Joint List, MK Ayman Odeh, to increase the old-age pension.
Likud faction chairman MK Yariv Levin said after the opposition's victories: "Today it has been proven again - the current government is a government of chaos. On Corona, the Negev, and also in the Knesset. Zero management, zero leadership. Israel needs a government with a clear direction. To a strong government."
The chairman of the Knesset committee, MK Nir Orbach (Yamina), left the Knesset Wednesday afternoon until the Ra'am party returns to vote.
Mansour Abbas' party is boycotting votes in protest of the planting by the Keren Kayemet Leyisrael (KKL) in the Negev.
Orbach said at a coalition board meeting before leaving the Knesset: "Give me one reason to stay here and vote. Why can they [Ra'am] always do what they want, while I have to continue to sit here in any situation."
The director general of the Religious Zionist Party, Yehuda Wald, responded to Orbach's move saying, "Not the Electricity Law, not the young settlements, not billions for the Islamic movement, not the wives of the yeshiva learners, not the attack on the Chief Rabbinate. The first time Orbach demands something, it's that Ra'am come back to sit next to him."
Earlier on Wednesday, Welfare Minister Meir Cohen (Yesh Atid) reached an agreement with the Negev Bedouin to immediately cease planting trees in the Negev.
Cohen, who has been charged with reaching agreements with the Bedouin, said that the tractors would leave the area during the course of Wednesday, following which the two sides would sit for negotiations in order to reach an agreement on the issue.
Journalist Mohammad Magadli tweeted, "It's not a victory for Ra'am (the United Arab List - ed.) and it's not anything else." According to him, "they planned ahead of time, even before they started, to cease the planting today. Just like they stopped earlier and restarted this week."
MK Bezalel Smotrich, who heads the Knesset's Religious Zionism party, responded: "This is a sad day for the Jewish state. The Israeli government has caved to terror and violence by Hamas' branch in Israel. The State of Israel has been sold to the Islamic Movement, and there is no red line that this government will not cross in order to survive politically."
"Suspending the planting on State lands, as a capitulation to Ra'am, is an embarrassment which cannot be forgiven. The Bennett-Abbas government is endangering the continuation of the Zionist enterprise."
The Regavim Movement slammed the decision to suspend the KKL forestation project in southern Israel, accusing the government of making "protection payments" to MK Mansour Abbas (United Arab List) and making the next round of violence and domestic terrorism inevitable.
"The Ra'am Party and the Bedouin know full well that they can dictate to the government through the use of political pressure, strong-arm tactics and violence," Regavim said. "When you cave in to terrorism and blackmail, you invite the next round of violence."
"[Israeli Prime Minister Naftali] Bennett and [Interior Minister Ayelet] Shaked (Yamina) have repeatedly asked that the 'government of change' be judged by actions, not words. Today, the government's decision to surrender to terrorism and to suspend the planting project is a an action that speaks louder than words. The words we’re hearing are Ayelet Shaked's – but the tune the government is dancing to is being sung by Mansour Abbas."
