In a move that seriously weakens Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s government, the Shas party has decided to withdraw from the Labor-led coalition.
Officials of the fervently Orthodox Sephardic party made the announcement Thursday evening. But they did not say whether the party would also withdraw its support for a historic agreement that would implement Palestinian self-rule first in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho.
As a result of the Shas secession, the Rabin government is left with a governing plurality of 56 Knesset members — out of a total of 120 — from the Labor Party and Meretz bloc.
Unless Labor can persuade additional parties to join the government, it will be forced to rely on the support of the five Knesset members belonging to the two left-wing Arab parties, Hadash and the Arab Democratic Party, in an upcoming crucial vote on the agreement for Palestinian self-rule.
The agreement, which was approved last week by Israel’s Cabinet, calls for Palestinian self-rule in Gaza and Jericho as a preliminary step toward extending Arab authority throughout the territories.
Until now, no Israeli government has relied on the Arab parties to stay in power. This situation would be particularly awkward at a time when Rabin seeks a broad mandate to make a controversial peace with the Palestinians.
The government crisis was prompted by an Israeli Supreme Court ruling Wednesday that two top Shas officials. Interior Minister Aryeh Deri and Deputy Religious Affairs Minister Raphael Pinhasi, should resign in light of charges of financial misconduct that have been brought against them.
Deri submitted his resignation Wednesday to the prime minister; Pinhasi offered his Thursday.
The Shas party has generally favored a settlement with the Palestinians. But the cases against Deri and Pinhasi have generated anger and bitterness within its ranks, and a belief they are being persecuted because they are Sephardic Jews.
On Thursday, the party’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, ordered two other Shas deputy ministers to resign from the government.
Yosef apparently will not make any decision on the party’s stance toward the peace plan until after he meets Friday with Rabin and Lt. Gen. Ehud Barak, the Israel Defense Force chief of staff, to discuss the security implications of the agreement.
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