Approval in the organizing committee: 'Otzma', Noam and Smotrich split into 3 factions

November 20, 2022   

The Knesset's organizing committee, headed by MK Yoav Kish of the Likud, met at noon (Sunday) to approve the requests of the Noam and Otzma Yehudit factions to split from the Religious Zionism faction headed by MK Bezalel Smotrich. Noam chairman MK Avi Maoz said in the discussion: "We are signed to an agreement that was made before the elections, which states that immediately after the elections we will split and we are fulfilling the agreements." MK Yitzhak Wasserlauf of Otzma Yehudit said: "We also signed a technical block and are asking to split." After the approval of the organizing committee, Religious Zionism led by Bezalel Smotrich now has 7 seats, Otzma Yehudit led by Ben Gvir has 6 seats, and the Noam faction led by Avi Maoz has 1 seat. The chairman of the committee, MK Yoav Kish, said: "We all join the request to hurry up with the formation of the new government. It is important that the coalition negotiations end as soon as possible. Everyone needs to understand the magnitude of the hour, and we see what the price will be if we do not quickly reach agreements." It should be noted that both the Noam party and the Otzma Yehudit party are functioning independently even before the official split given today, and already at the stage of recommendations to President Yitzhak Herzog, representatives of the three factions arrived separately. Netanyahu also held separate meetings with the factions. The first faction meetings held last Tuesday in the Knesset were also held separately.