Ra’am Threatens Coalition Over Citizenship Bill

The coalition leadership decided on Thursday to give MKs a free vote on the Citizenship Bill that would tighten immigration controls and make it harder for Palestinians who marry Israeli Arabs to receive citizenship.

Ra’am faction head Waleed Taha responded on Sunday that his party’s MKs can vote for anything they want if the coalition does not enforce discipline.

There are three versions of the bill, sponsored by Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, Religious Zionist Party MK Simcha Rothman and Likud MK Avi Dichter, which will all be brought to a vote next week. The coalition has failed at passing all of them until now, due to internal dissent and the opposition’s refusal to pass any bill sponsored by the coalition.

The new strategy of not enforcing coalition is intended to enable at least one version of the bill to pass into law, as the High Court requires. But Meretz, which opposes all three versions of the bill, vowed to take revenge against the coalition.

“We oppose this cruel bill,” Meretz minister Tamar Zandberg told the Knesset Channel. “Allowing freedom of voting is a nice way of saying undermining the coalition. It’s unacceptable to us. The coalition cannot work this way. In a coalition of 61, there is a lot we can do. There will be steps taken.”

After the bill fell in July due to the last-minute defection of rebel MK Amichai Chikli, Shaked continued preventing Palestinian family reunification. But the High Court ruled last month that she cannot act as if the bill passed.

Shaked then tried passing Rothman’s bill and succeeded in getting it through the ministerial committee on legislation. But Foreign Minister Yair Lapid appealed the bill and prevented it from moving forward until now.