The Citizenship Law, a vital security bill preventing the citizenship of thousands of potential terrorists, failed to pass in a Knesset vote early Tuesday morning, a huge blow to the coalition.

The vote, which took place around 6:30 a.m. following a contentious all-night Knesset debate, ended in a draw, as 59 MKs voted in favor, 59 against, and two abstained. Two Ra’am members voted in favor of the bill, including chairman Mansour Abbas, and two abstained. But the vote ended in a tie due to a surprising move by rebel Yamina MK Amichai Chikli, who joined the opposition in voting against the bill. Although Chikli had opposed the coalition, he subsequently said he would vote with Yamina on most issues.

Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked was in talks all day Monday with Ra’am and Meretz to reach a compromise enabling the passage of the bill. At midnight, she interrupted the Knesset debate to announce a compromise deal – the extension of the bill for only six months rather than a year, the issuance of residency rights for 1,600 Palestinians, and the establishment of a committee to find humanitarian solutions for 9,700 Palestinians.

On Tuesday morning, Regional Cooperation Minister Issawi Freij (Meretz) revealed that Shaked had actually agreed to grant legal residency rights to 3,000 Palestinian families in exchange for the support of Meretz and Ra’am. “The agreement we reached with Bennett and Shaked would have granted over 3,000 Palestinian families legal standing in Israel,” he said. “We didn’t want to publicize it because of the Right. We missed a one-time opportunity to do justice for thousands of our people.”

Following the bill’s defeat, the coalition and the opposition exchanged barbs, with the coalition accusing the opposition of harming Israel’s security by playing petty politics.

The opposition accused the coalition of forming “a corrupt deal in the middle of the night” allowing thousands of Palestinians to enter Israel. Religious Zionist party chairman Betzalel Smotrich said that Yamina “agreed to grant Palestinians the ‘right of return’ in several installments.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)