Smotrich and his fellow-Religious Zionist Party members, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Orit Struck all had to be escort from the plenum following their comments, though several Likud and other right-wing MKs continued shouting out loud comments and interrupting Bennett’s speech.
As Bennett struggled to speak, his calls for patience and unity among the Israeli public were drowned out by the screams of his rival MKs and his own children, who were sitting in the public gallery, began making heart signs with their hands in support of their father.
Bennett called on all sides of the political spectrum to show restraint. He complained that in recent years, Israel was not being run in the way a country should be run.
“The loud tone of the screams is the same as the failure to govern during your term in office,” Bennett snapped at the Likud hecklers.
RELIGIOUS ZIONIST Party head Bezalel Smotrich protesting new government at Knesset meeting. Photograph Name: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM
Shas and United Torah Judaism MKs also heckled Bennett, calling him a liar and a cheat but Bennett promised to help the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) sector, even though its MKs would not be part of his government. He pledged to build a new haredi city for the sector’s growing population.
After ten more minutes of chaos, Likud MK May Golan, Shas MK Moshe Abutbul and United Torah Judaism MK Yitzhak Pindrus were also removed from the plenum for their protestations.
Labor MK Ram Shefa tweeted a video of the chaos, calling it an “embarrassment by the Religious Zionist Party” and adding “you will not stop us, change is on the way.”
In the address, Bennett said his government would prevent the nuclearization of Iran and would not permit rocket fire on Israeli citizens from the Gaza Strip. He thanked the administration of US President Joe Biden for its support during the war in Gaza and pledged to work to maintain bipartisan support for Israel in the US.
Bennett made a point of starting his address by praising outgoing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his hard work over the years for the State of Israel, and his wife, Sara, for her dedication. He said Netanyahu deserved credit for his outreach to Ra’am (United Arab List) head Mansour Abbas. The new government would take unprecedented steps to reach out to the Arab sector, Bennett vowed.
Incoming foreign minister and alternate prime minister Yair Lapid also spoke and said, his mother, author Shulamit Lapid had made a special effort to come to the Knesset for the occasion:
“My mother is 86 years old and we did not easily ask her to make her way to Jerusalem. We did it because I assumed that you [opposition MKs] would be able to get a grip and act respectfully at this moment, and that she can witness a peaceful transition of power,” Lapid said.
“When she was born, Israel did not yet exist, Tel Aviv was a town of 30,000 people and we did not have a parliament and I wanted her to be proud of Israel’s democratic process. Instead, she and every other Israeli citizen is ashamed of you and has again remembered why it’s time to replace you.”
“I’m skipping the speech I planned to deliver today because I’m here to say one thing – to ask for forgiveness from my mother,” Lapid said.
A crisis was avoided earlier, when Ra’am MK Saeed Alharomi said he would vote in support of the new government after he threatened not to vote in support of it.
Religious Zionist MK Itamar Ben-Gvir kicked out of Knesset meeting for protesting the new government. Photograph Credit: Knesset Channel
