Today, Tuesday, Israeli lawmakers approved in the first reading a bill that provides for the dissolution of the Israeli parliament (the Knesset) itself, in an important legislative step that pushes Israel towards holding its fifth elections in less than 4 years.

Members of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's coalition and the opposition led by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been arguing in the Knesset since last week over the bill that would allow the parliament to dissolve itself.

The law was passed by a majority of 53 members after hours of deliberations, without any opposition or abstention from any of the members.

The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation said that it was decided to complete the voting on the bill until midnight tomorrow, Wednesday, before the emergency regulations in the West Bank expire.

Israel established emergency regulations in the West Bank in 1967, and they are extended every 5 years, and their effectiveness expires at the end of this month.


Law and repercussions

Based on the bill, parliament will be dissolved and new elections will be held on October 25 or November 1, an issue that will have to be agreed upon after further negotiations, and then the bill will have to be passed in two further votes by the entire Knesset.

Lawmakers are expected to pass a series of separate pieces of legislation on Tuesday and Wednesday before the final vote on the bill to dissolve parliament.

At midnight, after the bill is finally approved, Prime Minister Bennett will hand over power to Foreign Minister Yair Lapid under a power rotation agreement reached by the two sides after inconclusive elections last year.

Since its formation, Bennett's coalition—which includes religious nationalists, secularists, centrists, pacifists, and Islamist Arabs—has been vulnerable to ideological differences among its members.

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid (second from right) will take over from Bennett (Reuters)

failures and fears

But the straw that broke the camel's back - according to the Israeli prime minister - was the failure to renew a procedure that guarantees the application of Israeli law to settlers living in the occupied West Bank.

Bennett, who was leading a pressure group supporting the settlers, said that the expiry of the measure's deadline on June 30 promises security risks and a state of "constitutional chaos."

The dissolution of parliament before the deadline means that the law will remain in place until a new government takes power.

On what may be his last public appearance as prime minister, Bennett said his tenure had been "fantastic" for Israel after "troubled years of elections".

"I think that this year we have done a job that takes 10 years, and I feel very happy for that," he stressed at the "Cyberspace Week" conference - organized by Tel Aviv University -.

Bennett, a religious nationalist, made it clear that his alliance with Al-Wasat Lapid (something he had long vowed not to do in the past) had stabilized after years of stagnation.

"I am not happy about the elections, as it is certainly not good for Israel, but that's how it went," he said.