Pressure on Netanyahu to dissolve parliament

A member of Israel's right-wing coalition threatened to quit the cabinet on Wednesday and support an opposition motion to dissolve parliament tabled for next week, piling pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reports Reuters.

Netanyahu's coalition of secular right-wing and ultra-Orthodox parties holds an 8-seat majority in parliament. United Torah Judaism has 7 seats while its ally, Shas, the other ultra-Orthodox party, has 11.

Latest opinion polls suggest that Netanyahu's coalition would lose power if an election was held today, with many voters unhappy over the continued war in Gaza since October 2023.

United Torah Judaism, one of two ultra-Orthodox parties in the coalition, said it would withdraw from the government unless it secured last-minute concessions formalizing an exemption for ultra-Orthodox men from military service.

The opposition party Yesh Atid, led by former Prime Minister Yair Lapid, put forward a parliamentary vote for next week to topple the government, even as the Israeli army continues battling Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It would require the support of 61 out of the 120 members of the parliament to succeed.

"This Knesset (parliament) is finished. It has nowhere to go," Lapid said.

Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, has remained silent on the looming crisis.

A spokesperson for United Torah Judaism leader Yitzhak Goldknopf told Reuters the party would vote in favour of dissolving parliament unless exemption legislation was passed.

With a week until the vote, Netanyahu and his allies still have time to negotiate over an issue that has dogged the coalition for months.