Israel’s Knesset Votes to Dissolve Government, Sets New Elections
Israel’s Knesset voted unanimously to dissolve the government and set new elections.
Some 93 lawmakers out of 120 voted Monday evening on the second and third readings of the dissolution bill, which set elections for March 17.
In the morning, the Knesset’s House Committee had approved the bill and sent it to the full Knesset.
On Dec. 2, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a televised news conference announced his intention to dissolve the Knesset and move to early elections. Hours earlier he had fired coalition party heads Yair Lapid of Yesh Atid and Tzipi Livni of Hatnua from their ministerial positions, saying he would “not tolerate ministers who that from within the government attack government policies and the person who leads the government.”
The March election date makes the current Knesset, the 19th, one of the shortest at just over two years. Elections had been scheduled to take place in November 2017.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
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.