Israeli Minister Amir Peretz Quits Over 2015 Budget
Israel’s environmental protection minister Amir Peretz. Image by Getty Images
Amir Peretz, Israel’s environmental protection minister, resigned from the government over the proposed 2015 budget.
Peretz, of the centrist Hatnua party that is part of the government coalition, announced he was stepping down at the weekly Cabinet meeting on Sunday. His resignation goes into effect on Tuesday.
Saying the budget does not help the poorest Israelis, Peretz in an interview on Israel’s Channel 2 on Saturday night said he would “not be a part of a government that continues in this direction.”
At the Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly said after Peretz criticized the government and announced his resignation, “I thank you for acknowledging that your place is not around the Cabinet table.”
Peretz was bound by the coalition agreement to vote for the budget on Monday. If he had not resigned, and voted against the budget, he would have been removed from his position. Hatnua has six seats in the government.
Meanwhile, a minister in Yesh Atid, which has 19 seats — one more than Netanyahu’s Likud — said his centrist party was deciding whether to remain in the government.
Science Minister Yaakov Peri said in an interview on Army Radio that Netanyahu’s continued shifting rightward is making it difficult for Yesh Atid.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
