Far-right politicians subject to action from UK and others are both crucial to Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition
The two far-right Israeli cabinet ministers facing sanctions from the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway are critical to the political survival of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
In 2022 Netanyahu formed the most rightwing government in Israel’s history, brokering a coalition with Bezalel Smotrich, whose Religious Zionism party has 14 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, and Itamar Ben-Gvir, whose Jewish Power party has six seats.
They account for just 20 of his coalition’s 67 seats in parliament but carry outsize influence because if they quit – which both repeatedly threaten to do – the government will fall.
Netanyahu is currently on trial for corruption and fending off calls for an official inquiry into the 7 October 2023 attacks, and keen to avoid early elections.
