Jerusalem Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett — along with his key coalition ally Foreign Minister Yair Lapid — has agreed to submit a bill to dissolve parliament. This would trigger a general election later in the year.
A short statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said the move came “after attempts to stabilize the coalition had been exhausted.”
A bill would be submitted to parliament at some point next week, the statement added.
If it is passed, Lapid will be set to take over from Bennett as Prime Minister, in line with the original coalition agreement struck last year.
Among other things, that would mean Lapid would be Israel’s leader for the planned visit of US President Joe Biden next month.
The election would be the fifth in Israel in under four years.
The Bennett-Lapid government has been in power for just over a year, and was formed from a coalition of eight parties stretching across the political spectrum, including for the first time an Arab party, led by Mansour Abbas.
However, recent weeks have seen a number of members of the coalition either quitting, or threatening to quit, leaving the government without a majority in parliament to pass legislation.
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