TEL AVIV: Israel's ruling coalition government has failed to enact a law giving Jewish residents in the occupied West Bank legal protection.
The coalition, which is made up of eight parties with diverse ideologies, including pro-settler nationalists and Dovish parties, was unable to gain the necessary majority to pass the bill that extends the emergency regulations under which Israel applies Israeli law to settlers, as per reports.
It was defeated, with 58 parliamentarians voting no and 52 voting in favour. Mazen Ghanem of the Muslim Ra'am party and Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi of the liberal Meretz party were the only members of the coalition who voted against the bill.
They denounced the regulations for allowing an unequal legal system to exist in which Israelis and Palestinians are subjected to two sets of laws in the same occupied land.
In an attempt to bring down the government, the opposition, which mostly consists of right-wing parties that favour the settlements, voted against the law. After the vote, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, the leader of the pro-settler Yamina party, was seen hurrying out of the Knesset, or Parliament.
"This law is going to pass. If not today, then tomorrow, and if not tomorrow, then the next day, "On Monday night, he told the local press.
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