Controversial far-right activist Itamar Ben Gvir holds the third slot on the merged slate, which most polls have shown clearing the threshold and clinching 4-5 seats in the upcoming March 23 elections.
Vote-sharing agreements, which are widely used in Israeli elections, allow parties to ensure that extra votes they win that don’t add up to a Knesset seat do not go to waste. Instead, a party to transfer those votes to another party through a special agreement.
Under the law, the combined leftover votes go to the party closest to winning another seat — and are often sufficient to add that seat to its tally, making the votes potentially decisive in a close race.
Such deals only count if both parties pass the electoral threshold of 3.25 percent of the votes, hence, if the Religious Right list doesn’t clear the threshold it can amount to a loss for the right bloc.
Religious Zionism, headed by Bezalel Smotrich, announced the development in a statement that said the party “insisted that Netanyahu commit to forming a right-wing government whose basic guidelines will include safeguarding the Land of Israel, strengthening the state’s Jewish identity, strengthening the capacity to govern and advancing the economy and Israeli society’s welfare.”
Religious Zionism vowed in the agreement to not support anyone but Netanyahu as prime minister for the entire term of the 24th Knesset, while Likud promised to have representatives of Religious Zionism in any government formed by Netanyahu.
“As we said all the while, alongside the treatment of the coronavirus crisis and the economy, we won’t enable the formation of a center-left government that will set aside the values of religious Zionism and the right for the coming years,” Smotrich’s party said. “We have an ideology and we will do everything to form a right-wing government.”
Opposition figures were quick to criticize Likud over the move. Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid tweeted that Netanyahu had signed a deal with “terror supporter” Ben Gvir and was “doing everything” to get him into the parliament and the government.
Likud’s Environmental Protection Minister Gila Gamliel said during a conference that while Smotrich’s party will “definitely” be in the government, “some personalities maybe won’t be part of the government.”
Another Likud lawmaker, Yoav Kisch, voiced a different stance, saying that Ben Gvir “is a legitimate candidate.”
