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Left-wing MK opposes Arab List-backed Gantz coalition

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Orly Levy Abekasis announced she will not support a Benny Gantz-led government if it requires the support of the Arab-controlled Joint List.

By World Israel News Staff

On Tuesday, Labor-Gesher-Meretz MK Orly Levy Abekasis said she won’t back a coalition that requires the outside support of the Joint List, a faction that represents several Arab parties in the Knesset, Channel 12 News reported

Earlier in the day, Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz met with leaders of the Joint List to lay the groundwork for a government propped up by Arab lawmakers’ support.

Under such an arrangement, Gatz could form a coalition without uniting a majority of the Knesset’s 120 seats, creating a “minority government” with the Arabs’ tacit consent.

The Joint List garnered 15 seats in the last round of elections on March 2.

Levy Abekasis’ announcement on Tuesday could represent a deathblow for Gantz’s minority government plan, denying him much needed support from within the coalition.

The Arab parties in the Joint List seek to eliminate Israel’s status as a Jewish state and listed as one of their demands on Monday a ban on Jews visiting the Temple Mount, a Jerusalem pilgrimage destination that represents Judaism’s holiest site.

The Joint List was recently endorsed by a a U.S.-designated terror group called the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), which said in a statement that the faction “has important national roles in the political and social arena.”