14 | JUNE 17 • 2021 

B

enjamin Netanyahu’s 
record-breaking term 
as prime minister 
ended on Sunday night, June 
13, when the Knesset voted to 
approve the new government 
formed by Yamina leader 
Naftali Bennett and Yesh Atid 
chairman Yair Lapid.
The new government passed 
at 8:55 p.m. with the support of 
60 Members of Knesset, while 
59 opposed it. Ra’am (United 
Arab List) MK Saeed Alharomi 
abstained.
The MKs in the new coali-
tion and their family members 
in the visitors’ gallery erupted 
in applause when the results 
were announced.
Bennett and Netanyahu then 
shook hands, and following his 
swearing in as prime minister, 
Bennett sat in Netanyahu’s 
chair in the Knesset plenum. 
But when Bennett passed by 
Netanyahu’s new chair follow-
ing his swearing in, Netanyahu 
declined to take his hand again.

The ministers then took 
turns being sworn in. Bennett 
was sworn in as Israel’s 13th 
prime minister and Lapid as 
the 14th.

Bennett convened the gov-
ernment for its first meeting at 
the Knesset. The historic photo 
of Israel’s 36th government 
was taken at the President’s 
Residence on Monday.
Earlier on Monday, Bennett 
defiantly presented his new 
government’s ministers and 
guidelines in an address at the 
Knesset plenum, while MKs 
who will be in the opposition 
heckled him constantly.
At the moment when 
Bennett started his speech 
introducing his government, 
Religious Zionist Party head 
Bezalel Smotrich and other 
MKs shouted, “Shame,
” while 
waving posters of victims of 
terrorism. They were removed 
from the plenum.
“I am proud that I can sit in 
a government with people with 

very different views,
” Bennett 
told his hecklers in the Knesset 
plenum, adding that they 
seemed to have a problem with 
losing power.

SEEKING RESTRAINT
Bennett called on all sides of 
the political spectrum to dis-
play restraint. In recent years, 
Israel had stopped being man-

aged as a country, he said.

“The loud tone of the 
screams is the same as the fail-
ure to govern during your term 
in office,
” Bennett snapped 
back at the Likud MKs.
Shas and United Torah 
Judaism MKs 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 gov-
ernment. He pledged to build a 
new haredi city for the sector’s 
growing population.
“This is not a day of mourn-
ing,
” Bennett said. “There is 
no disengagement here. There 
is no harm being caused to 
anyone. There is a change of 
government in a democracy. 
That’s it. And I assure it is a 
government that will work for 
the sake of all the people.
“We will do all we can so 
that no one should have to feel 
afraid. We are here in the name 

WORLD

Netanyahu out after 12 years; Lapid takes over in 2023.

Bennett Installed as 
Israeli Prime Minister

GIL HOFFMAN JERUSALEM POST

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett with his family, in the Knesset in 
Jerusalem, on June 13.

The heads of the eight parties 
making up the new government 
meet in the Knesset on June 13, 
2021. Left to right: Ra’am head 
Mansour Abbas, Labor chief 
Merav Michaeli, Blue and White 
head Benny Gantz, Yesh Atid 
leader Yair Lapid, Yamina chief 
Naftali Bennett, New Hope head 
Gideon Sa’ar, Yisrael Beytenu 
chief Avigdor Liberman and 
Meretz leader Nitzan Horowitz.

ARIEL ZANDBERG/YAMINA/TIMES OF ISRAEL

ARIEL ZANDBERG/YAMINA/TIMES OF ISRAEL

