JERUSALEM, June 13 (Xinhua) -- A lawmaker with Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's party announced Monday he will stop voting with the ruling coalition, in the latest blow to Bennett's fragile government as the eight-party alliance marks its one-year anniversary in office.
Nir Orbach, a member of the religious-nationalist Yamina party, said in a statement that he will not vote with the coalition until the contested emergency regulations that ensure benefits to Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank are extended.
"I came to the conclusion that the coalition cannot continue to exist in its current conduct," he said, adding that it was failing to "fulfill its mission."
After a series of defections and rebellions in recent weeks, the ruling coalition was left with 60 seats in the 120-seat Knesset or parliament.
Last Monday, the narrow coalition could not gain the majority needed to approve a bill that calls to extend the emergency regulations with which Israel applies Israeli law to settlers.
Bennett's coalition was inaugurated in June 2021, after a string of four inconclusive elections. It consists of eight parties with diverse ideologies, including pro-settler nationalists and Dovish parties, united only with the goal of ousting the longtime leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing a criminal trial over corruption charges. ■
