RAMALLAH // The new Israeli coalition government “will be one of war” and work against peace and stability in the region, a senior Palestinian official said on Thursday.
“This government will set its sights on killing and reinforcing settlement activities,” Saeb Erekat said of the right-wing, religious coalition put together by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu just ahead of a midnight deadline on Wednesday.
Mr Erekat’s comments came as a watchdog said Israel had approved the construction of 900 settler homes in annexed East Jerusalem.
The new homes will be built in the settlement neighbourhood of Ramat Shlomo following a decision late on Wednesday by the city’s district planning committee.
“They’ve approved the request, and now they’re allowed to build,” said Peace Now spokeswoman, Hagit Ofran.
After reaching a late-night deal on the new coalition, Mr Netanyahu signed an agreement on Thursday giving a senior role to the far-right Jewish Home party, headed by Naftali Bennett.
Under the agreement, Mr Bennett and his party will take several key portfolios, including justice and education, as well as control of the World Zionist Organisation’s settlement division, which transfers money to settlements.
The party’s second-in-command, Uri Ariel, will also become deputy defence minister with responsibility for the civil administration that runs all civilian affairs in most of the occupied West Bank.
With the religious-nationalist Jewish Home opposing a Palestinian state, as well as backing settlement activity, the move looks set to further complicate Israel’s already damaged relationship with the Palestinians, while further straining ties with the international community.
However, with a wafer-thin majority of 61 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, Mr Netanyahu’s coalition looks set to face an uphill battle for survival, with commentators unanimous that the prime minister will seek to broaden it out in the coming months.
Analysts also said there was not likely to be any immediate change in Israel’s policy towards the Palestinians, while acknowledging that Mr Bennett’s strong position at the table would likely strengthen the settlement enterprise.
Robbie Sabel, an international law expert at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, said the new government would not be popular with the international community but that Mr Netanyahu would be careful to keep foreign policy matters out of Mr Bennett’s hands.
“Intentionally, Netanyahu is keeping the foreign ministry in his own hands for the meantime which means there will be no change in Israel’s foreign policy,” he said.
With such a slim majority, commentators said Mr Netanyahu was likely already seeking ways of expanding his fragile administration, which is to be sworn in at the Knesset on Monday.
“To a great extent, Netanyahu didn’t succeed in forming a government, but has bought time to form a different government,” one political observer told the left-leaning Haaretz daily.
Sources from Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party were quoted in several papers as saying they would seek to expand the coalition over the next few months by including the Zionist Union or even Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beitenu.
Mr Lieberman pulled out of coalition talks earlier this week in a move which ultimately cast Mr Bennett into the role of kingmaker.
But Mr Herzog insisted that he would remain in opposition.
“We won’t be a fifth wheel and we do not intend to save Netanyahu from the hole he has dug for himself,” he said. “If he thinks he can wave one portfolio or another (to convince me otherwise) he is making a bitter mistake.”
* Agence France-Presse
