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Israel PM slammed for not putting Lebanon maritime deal before Knesset for vote

October 14, 2022 at 11:10 am

Israeli Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked in Jerusalem. [MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/Getty Images]

Israeli Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked yesterday slammed Prime Minister Yair Lapid after he announced that he will not put the maritime border agreement with Lebanon to a vote in the Knesset, Maariv newspaper reported.

“Yair… The Knesset is not a list of Yesh Atid and you are the only ruler in it,” Shaked wrote on Twitter.

“It is therefore expected that it will certainly get the Knesset approval when such a dramatic political agreement is at stake,” she added.

Shaked called on Lapid to retract his insulting statements and submit the agreement to the Knesset’s plenary session for approval as soon as possible.

Last month, Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara ruled that the maritime agreement is not covered by a 2014 referendum law requiring that any territorial concessions be approved by either a majority of Israelis and the Knesset, or a Knesset supermajority, Israeli media outlets reported.

In her ruling revealed on Wednesday, Baharav-Miara said she would prefer a full vote in the Knesset but with Lebanese President, Michel Aoun, leaving office soon, along with support from Israel’s security services, such a vote is unnecessary.

She added that the current outgoing government is under no legal obligation to put the deal before the Knesset for a vote, and could suffice in merely providing the Knesset with the details of the agreement.

READ: Lebanon President accepts maritime border deal with Israel