Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition government on Wednesday boycotted a Knesset vote supporting US President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan.
The vote, initiated by opposition leader Yair Lapid, passed with 39 votes in favor and zero votes against. Members of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s coalition fled the parliamentary plenary session as time began to debate the proposal, rushing to the exits as the vote approached.
“I admit that I am surprised and disappointed that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not here,” Lapid said as the debate began. “This is the first opportunity we have as Congress to say to President Trump, to the world, and to ourselves: We are united in a common goal. Prime Minister Netanyahu boycotted the vote and chose not to be here. We are disappointed.”
This largely symbolic step states, “The Israeli Parliament decides to accept and adopt the 20-point plan of President Trump.”
Israeli opposition sources said the move was aimed at “challenging and embarrassing” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in front of the Trump administration, as well as sowing and exposing divisions within the far-right coalition. The proposal is currently before the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, but it is likely that Netanyahu’s coalition will kill it.
Prime Minister Netanyahu publicly supported the plan during a visit to the White House in September 2025 and welcomed its adoption by the United Nations Security Council in November.
But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, which includes far-right allies, never formally discussed or voted on a full plan beyond the first phase of the ceasefire, which includes Israel’s partial withdrawal from Gaza in exchange for the return of the remaining living and dead hostages. Israel also agreed to release a number of Palestinian prisoners of war and detainees.
The second phase of the ceasefire plan allows for a path to “self-determination and statehood for the Palestinian people,” while ultimately calling for the establishment of a reformed Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza.
Despite verbally agreeing to the plan, Prime Minister Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed not to recognize the establishment of a Palestinian state. Both coalition partners, far-right ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, have rejected Trump’s plan. Smotrich told X in November that he called on Prime Minister Netanyahu to “immediately develop an appropriate and decisive response that makes it clear to the whole world that a Palestinian state will never be established in our homeland.”
Ben Gvir and other members already announced last week that they would oppose Lapid’s motion.
“We will definitely vote against it. If Mr. Lapid wants to embarrass the state, that’s his job. There will be no Palestinian state,” Minister of Culture and Heritage Amichai Eliyahu said on Israeli Army Radio last week. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government walked out instead of voting against the proposal, which passed with opposition support.
Prime Minister Netanyahu himself has not commented publicly on Lapid’s motion, but two coalition officials told CNN that internal discussions have been taking place in recent days as they consider how to handle the vote.
Ahead of the vote, Lapid wrote in X that it should be a “moment of unity that reflects the nation’s unity in the efforts of President Trump and his team,” adding that he expected Netanyahu to “instruct his party members and members of the coalition to support this proposal.”
Opposition parties employed similar tactics in a controversial vote in October, when the Knesset gave preliminary approval to a bill seeking Israeli sovereignty over the occupied West Bank during U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance’s visit to Israel. The bill was passed by a vote of 25 to 24, despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s request to withdraw it, due to defiance from right-wing parliamentarians.
Mr Vance denounced the move as an “insult” and a “very stupid political stunt”, while US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called it “counterproductive” and “even a threat” to President Trump’s Gaza peace plan. President Trump himself warned in an October interview with Time magazine that if annexation were to go through, “Israel would lose all support from the United States.”
Following the harsh reaction from the United States, Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office called the vote a “deliberate political provocation.” Subsequently, the Israeli Prime Minister instructed the coalition government not to move forward with any annexation-related legislation.
