JERUSALEM, June 28, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - The Israeli parliament unanimously

approved early Tuesday a draft bill to dissolve parliament, a key legislative
step that pushes the country closer towards its fifth election in less than
four years.

Members of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's outgoing coalition and the
opposition led by ex-premier Benjamin Netanyahu have been sparring in
Israel's parliament, the Knesset, since last week over a dissolution bill.

The coalition said it wanted quick approval of the law after Bennett
announced last week that his year-old, ideologically divided eight-party
alliance was no longer tenable.

But Netanyahu and his allies have been holding talks seeking to form a new
Netanyahu-led government within the current parliament, which would avert new
elections.
 
The sides have traded legislative jabs but finally agreed late Monday to
advance a bill that would be finalised as law by the end of Wednesday.

The opposition's readiness to dissolve parliament suggested that Netanyahu's
efforts to form a new government had stalled.

Early Tuesday, the Knesset House committee approved the bill. It was then
brought to the plenum for its first reading, which it passed 53-0.

According to the bill, parliament would dissolve, with new elections to be
held on October 25 or November 1, with the date to be set after further
negotiations.

The bill must then be approved in two further full Knesset votes.

At midnight after the bill's secures final approval, Bennett will hand power
to Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, in accordance with the power-sharing deal
they agreed following inconclusive elections last year.

The Bennett coalition, a motley alliance of religious nationalists, secular
hawks, centrists, doves and Arab Islamists, was imperilled by its ideological
divides from its outset.

The final straw, according to the premier, was a failure to renew a measure
that ensures Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank live under Israeli
law.

Bennett, the former head of a settler lobby group, said the measure's
expiration on June 30 would have brought security risks and "constitutional
chaos".

Dissolving parliament before the expiration date means the so-called West
Bank law will remain in force until a new government takes office.