Against advice of doctors Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, left his hospital bed to attend a vote in the Knesset that his coalition stood to lose.
Netanyahu had surgery on Sunday to remove his prostate gland and was to spend the next days recovering. The vote, part of the coalition's efforts to increase revenue in the 2024 budget, finally passed with a small majority after the prime minister was on hand to cast his vote and another member of his coalition, who was in mourning for his mother, was called in.
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"This is really unhealthy," one of the doctors treating Netanyahu at the Hadassah Medical Center said. The prime minister's private physician accompanied him to the Knesset and later returned with him to hospital.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leaves hospital to cast his vote in the Knesset
(Photo: Knesset Spokesperson)
The crisis began when National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said his party would vote against the proposed bill unless his demand for additional funds for his ministry are provided. He was joined by the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism Party which demanded assurances that a law exempting Haredi men from military service, be advanced.
Earlier the coalition approved millions in budgetary allotments to Haredi institutions and West Bank settlements in last minute additions to the budget that were delivered to lawmakers late on Monday night and were therefore not properly reviewed or discussed, despite opposition outrage while funds for reserve soldiers were cut.
In total, 5 billion shekel were allotted on the last day of the 2024 budget.