MK Ahmad Tibi, who heads the joint Hadash-Ta'al list, on Saturday evening said that he and the other members of the Joint Arab List cooperated with the previous government.
The Arab Hadash, Ta'al, and Balad parties were a single list in the previous Knesset, known as the Joint Arab List. Prior to the 25th Knesset, Balad split from Hadash and Ta'al to run independently. It did not pass the electoral threshold and did not make it into the 25th Knesset.
Speaking to "Meet the Press," Tibi explained, "We agreed to provide a safety net for the Bennett-Lapid coalition. Twice I informed the coalition.... They requested an extension until the break. We agreed to give them an extension until the break, a month and a half, and then they collapsed from within."
"The coalition broke apart. I do not play with this team, so I cannot be a coach, center back, center forward, goalie, and also score for a team which kicks the ball into its own goal every Monday and Thursday. When it was publicized that [former Prime Minister Naftali] Bennett was about to resign, I called someone in the coalition and I told him that we do not want elections in October-November. The immediate answer was, 'Bennett has said he is finished,' he does not want."
"They did not need to offer us anything in exchange," Tibi continued. "During that period, we passed laws but we were opposition. The fact that there are fascists in this government (which is expected to be formed) does not mean that the previous government was all honey. We gave the government a month of a safety net in exchange for that fact that we passed bills and budgets."
Otzma Yehudit chief MK Itamar Ben-Gvir responded to Tibi's statements, saying, "The cat is out of the bag. Ahmad Tibi now admits to 'Meet the Press' that he agreed to be a security net for Bennett and Lapid. It's time to stop relying on terror supporters, it's time for a real right-wing government, which will rely on those who love the people and the land. It's time to respect the choice of the majority of the people, and to bring back governance."