The governing coalition reached agreements with former national security minister and Otzma Yehudit party chairman MK Itamar Ben-Gvir, according to which the latter’s party will abstain on the first budget bill, set to reach the Knesset plenum on Wednesday.
Ben-Gvir agreed to abstain as a “goodwill gesture” over the prime minister’s decision to fire Shin Bet head Ronen Bar and Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara.
The abstention means that the government now has a comfortable majority to pass the Economics Arrangements Bill on Wednesday.
The bill is a bill that accompanies the national budget every year, and includes related legal amendments that are necessary for the budget to be carried out in full.
The coalition then intends to pass the budget bill itself at the beginning of next week (likely on Monday, March 24, or early Tuesday morning). However, Ben-Gvir's support for the budget itself is still not guaranteed.
Ben-Gvir critical of Shin Bet chief and attorney-general
Ben-Gvir has been a fierce critic of both Bar and Baharav-Miara.
His criticism of Baharav-Miara intensified after the latter wrote to Netanyahu that he would need to receive legal consultation in order to reappoint Ben-Gvir as National Security Minister due to a series of alleged improper interventions into operational police work.
