www.aljazeera.com
‘No difference’: Palestinians react to Israeli coalition deal
Many Palestinians sceptical that a change in Israeli government due to replace PM Netanyahu will improve their lives.
International
Many Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza have dismissed a change in the Israeli government, saying the nationalist leader due to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would likely pursue the same right-wing agenda.
Naftali Bennett, the 49-year-old former head of Israel’s main West Bank settler organisation and ex-Netanyahu ally, would be the country’s new leader under a patchwork coalition.
Opposition and centrist leader Yair Lapid of Yesh Atid and Bennett declared on Wednesday night they had reached a deal to form a new government to unseat the incumbent Netanyahu after a 12-year run as prime minister.
Bassem al-Salhi, a representative of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), said the prime minister-designate was no less extreme than Netanyahu.
“He will make sure to express how extreme he is in the government,” he said.
Bennett has been a strong advocate of annexing parts of the West Bank that Israel captured and occupied in a 1967 war.