The 23rd Knesset automatically dissolved at midnight, after a new State Budget Law for 2020 was unable to pass. New elections will be held in exactly three months time of March 23 - Israel's fourth elections in just two years.
The coalition between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud and Minister of Defense Benny Gantz's Blue & White held for just seven months and the pair were unable to overcome a series of disputes and their mutual distrust, and the crisis has ended in elections.
In a statement close to midnight by Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin, he said that the Knesset members had been unable to bridge their difference and find enough in common to continue managing the country. He called for the elections to be fair and free of violence.
Before its dissolution, the Knesset plenum approved the first reading of a bill to prevent a budgetary crisis in the absence of the State budget being passed. This enables the Knesset to continue dealing with the bill in the coming days and it is likely to be passed next week.
The bill which changes the Basic Law on the Economy, will allow the Ministry of Finance to continue funding government activities for the second year running without a state budget, otherwise all government activities would have been halted on January 1. The bill is seen as a major achievement for Minister of Finance Israel Katz.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on December 23, 2020
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