Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu signs agreement with rival Benny Gantz

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Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signed an agreement with rival Benny Gantz, ending a year of political deadlock in the country.

The deal will see the two leaders share a rotating premiership. Netanyahu will continue to serve for the next year and a half before he is replaced by Gantz, who will be his deputy for the first rotation period. Gantz’s number two, Gabi Ashkenazi, will serve as foreign minister.

It marks a significant relinquishment of power by the incumbent prime minister, who is under criminal indictment in three corruption cases. He denies any wrongdoing.

Thousands of protesters lined the street’s of Tel Aviv on Sunday to call for Netanyahu’s removal from power and an end to coalition talks between his Likud and Gantz’s Blue and White party, which they said amounted to a threat to democracy. 

The two men said they were forming a ‘national emergency government’ in a statement. They will meet this evening and are expected to release statements to supporters, Israeli media reports.

The final agreement included the majority of Netanyahu’s demands, Israeli news station Channel 12 reported, including the annexation of parts of the West Bank and on the composition of the panel responsible for appointing judges.

It will also have to be signed by Likud’s right-wing religious partners before being voted on in the Knesset. It is not expected to be formally signed off until Israel’s independence day, April 28.  

Wearing face masks and keeping two yards apart, some 2,000 activists gathered in Rabin Square on Sunday following a call launched on Facebook by the ‘Black Flag’ movement which condemns Netanyahu’s continuing rule.

Israel’s parliament was tasked with forming a government on Thursday after speaker Gantz and Netanyahu missed a deadline to seal an alliance, but negotiations between the sides appeared to be deadlocked.  

Israel has reported more than 13,000 coronavirus cases and 172 deaths. 

A partial lockdown has confined most Israelis to their homes, forced businesses to close and sent unemployment to about 26 per cent. 

Gantz and Netanyahu could still agree on an emergency unity government to help Israel confront the COVID-19 pandemic, prospect the protesters spoke out against.  

Wearing face masks, waving black flags and keeping two yards apart, the protesters observed social distancing rules in force to fight the coronavirus.

‘Let democracy win’, said one placard, while some protesters had written ‘Minister of Crime’ on their masks, an apparent reference to Netanyahu’s upcoming trial for corruption.

Many waved black flags as a symbol for threats against Israel’s democracy.

‘You don’t fight corruption from within,’ said Yair Lapid, the new opposition leader, of his former ally Gantz. ‘If you’re inside, you’re part of it.’

Democracies in 21st Century died because ‘good people are silent and weak people surrender’, Lapid said.  

Netanyahu, who denies any wrongdoing, is also under criminal indictment in three corruption cases. 

Demonstrations are allowed under Israel’s coronavirus restrictions, as long as participants maintain distance from each other and wear face masks.

Under the banner of ‘Save the Democracy,’ protesters called on Gantz’s Blue and White party not to join in a coalition led by a premier charged with corruption.

Gantz has campaigned for clean government, but said that the coronavirus crisis has forced him to go back on his election pledge.