A vote in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, on Monday has thrown unexpected light on the ongoing debate – regarded in Israel as an anti-Semitic calumny – over whether Israel should be regarded as a state which practises apartheid.
At stake on Monday was a bill to extend regulations applying Israeli law to the country’s citizens living in the occupied West Bank. The regulations were originally enacted in 1967, following Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territory during the so-called Six Day War, and have been renewed every five years ever since.
Until this week, renewal had always been routine and rarely covered by the media. Irrespective of the party in power, there was always a large majority. It’s a fair assumption that few Israelis were even aware of the clockwork renewal of the regulations, which effectively create two legal systems in the West Bank, one for Israelis and one for the rest (primarily stateless Palestinians).
Monday’s vote, which thwarted the government’s bid to renew the regulations, was a political circus. The right-wing opposition that defeated the bill – led by former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu – has always supported renewal, while several of the center-left parties in the government coalition that voted for it have traditionally been opposed.
Only three of the 120 Knesset members defied party discipline and voted their consciences. The coalition, an unruly pastiche of parties and interests, lost the vote when two of its Palestinian-Arab members broke ranks and voted with the opposition, while a third – a right-winger from Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s party – absented herself from the plenum.
The coalition has until the end of June to call, and win, another vote. Failing that, it is likely to call new elections. But the impact of Monday’s shenanigans is likely to be deeper and longer lasting.