Coalition imposes penalties on Ben Gvir for insubordination

Coalition whip Ofir Katz announced Sunday that penalties will be imposed on National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and his Otzma Yehudit party, following their opposition in the budget law vote last week.

Bills proposed by his party will now not receive coalition support and will not be brought forward until further notice.

Katz announced that government bill proposals from the national security ministry will be "judged on merit." Only urgent proposals will pass, according to him. "Such a significant and prolonged damage to the stability of the coalition and its behavior will not go unnoticed," a statement attributed to him said. "It is unthinkable that they will issue an apology and in the same breath ensure to continue to sabotage the work of the coalition."

Ben Gvir, whose refusal to vote brought Netanyahu out of hospital care to ensure the budget measure passed, apologized for the incident as he doubled down on his rebellion, blaming Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. Likud lawmaker Boaz Bismuth, who was mourning his mother in the seven-day Shiva period, was also forced to arrive at the Knesset plenum to vote.

The Agudat Israel faction of United Torah Judaism abstained from the vote as well. 

"Our ideology has never been deterred by 'punishments,'" Otzma Yehudit said in a statement. "This was the case when we fought against the policy in Gaza even before October 7th, when we changed the conditions of the terrorists in prison despite opposition, when we carried out a police reform, battled for the dismissal of the adversarial attorney general, and this will also be the case now in our fight against the harsh harm of treasury clerks in the Israel police and the Shin Bet, and the closing of police stations and ambulance stations. We will continue to fight fearlessly for the people of Israel."