JERUSALEM, 6 July 2004 — Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon yesterday survived six votes of no confidence in Parliament, including four denouncing his economic and social policy. Sharon lost his parliamentary majority last month.
The 120-seat Knesset voted down what was the second motion from the Labour Party condemning the government’s handling of the economy and social issues by 56 votes to 54. There were four abstentions.
It was the second time the left-wing opposition party led by Shimon Peres had filed a no confidence motion against the government since Sharon lost his majority after four far right-wing ministers left his coalition Cabinet in protest at his planned withdrawal of troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip.
Peres has been fiercely critical of Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultra-liberal economic policies.
Sharon also survived three separate motions on his economic and social policy filed by smaller parties.
Parliament also rejected a vote presented by an orthodox party on state financing for religious services and another by the extreme right-wing National Union Party on the government’s security policy.
Labour, which is widely expected to enter a new broad-based coalition in order to steer the Gaza plan through Parliament, has provided a safety net to Sharon.
But while deputies are still committed to ensuring that the premier is not defeated on any diplomatic initiatives, they decided last month that they would no longer prop up the government on economic votes.
Meanwhile, a Palestinian was shot dead and three others wounded in a gunbattle with Israeli forces in the northern West Bank town of Jenin yesterday, Palestinian and Israeli sources said.
Palestinian security sources named the man as Khaled Al-Hawi, 25, a local leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, an armed group loosely affiliated with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s mainstream Fatah movement.
The clashes broke out when dozens of Israeli soldiers surrounded a house where members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades had taken refuge, witnesses and security sources said. They said a column of around 30 tanks and jeeps rolled into central Jenin shortly before 3 p.m.
One helicopter was flying overhead and fired its machine gun. An Israeli military source said several Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a force trying to arrest two Palestinians.
A Palestinian teenager was killed late yesterday by Israeli gunfire in the southern Gaza Strip, a hospital source said.
Alaa Al-Shaer, 14, was shot by Israeli troops near his home in Khan Yunis, not far from the Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim. He later died from his wounds in hospital, the source said.
