The Islamist Ra’am party on Sunday evening temporarily froze its membership in the Knesset and the coalition following intense pressure on the party in the wake of Arab riots on the Temple Mount which were met by riot control methods by the Israeli police.

The move followed a meeting of the Southern Islamic Movement’s Shura council earlier on Sunday, during which Sheikh Mohammad Salameh Hassan, the party’s religious authority, ordered Ra’am to leave the coalition “for the sake of Al-Aqsa.”

The measure is largely a symbolic one as the Knesset is on a break until May. The Arab Joint List party jeered at Ra’am, with MK Ofer Cassif (the party’s only Jewish member) saying that Ra’am’s announcement of a freeze in its coalition membership during a Knesset recess “is like announcing a diet during Ramadan.”

According to Israeli media reports, the annoucement, which was coordinated with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, is aimed at reducing the pressure on Ra’am and thwarting a permanent break off from the government.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)