Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich quits Netanyahu regime

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has resigned from his post, increasing problems for the coalition regime of Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israeli Channel 12 reported on Monday that Smotrich resigned in a letter to Netanyahu.

A spokesperson for Smotrich said the resignation was a protest against ultranationalist-Zionist Jewish Power party head Itamar Ben-Gvir’s request for more ministerial positions upon his return to join the regime again. Ben-Gvir had quit the Netanyahu regime in January.

Smotrich will return to his seat in the Knesset as a lawmaker for his far-right Religious Zionism party.

The resignation will not collapse Netanyahu’s coalition regime, but it will increase problems for it.

The move highlights growing fractures within Israel’s far-right coalition, which has faced internal divisions on key appointments and policies in recent months.

In January, Ben-Gvir, along with his entire party, resigned from Netanyahu’s ruling coalition over the Gaza ceasefire agreement.

The party called the ceasefire agreement a “capitulation to Hamas” and the renunciation of the Israeli regime’s so-called achievements since the start of the war.

Ben-Gvir was sitting on the Israeli cabinet alongside two fellow Jewish Power MPs. His party also holds six seats in the 120-seat parliament (the Knesset).