A government source said Saturday that “significant progress” has been made in talks to persuade Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi to reverse her resignation from Israel’s coalition, after the Meretz lawmaker’s decision seemed to sound the death knell for the minority government.
“Tomorrow, everything will be behind us,” said the source, claiming she will neither leave the Knesset nor the coalition.
“The government is strong and will continue to be strong,” noted the source.
In her resignation letter on Thursday, Rinawie Zoabi wrote that she had joined the coalition in hopes that Arabs and Jews working together might help bring about “a new path of equality and respect,” but that coalition leaders had chosen to take “hawkish, hard-line and right-wing positions.”
She also cited violence at the Temple Mount and the funeral of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh as driving the “moral decision.”
Her move left the coalition with just 59 seats, two shy of a majority, after Idit Silman of Bennett’s Yamina party resigned in early April.
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