Israeli tourism minister resigns to protest Netanyahu
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's tourism minister resigned from the fractious government Friday, saying he doesn't have an “ounce of trust” in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and accusing him of putting his personal and legal issues ahead of the response to the coronavirus crisis.
Asaf Zamir is a member of the centrist Blue and White Party, which battled Netanyahu's right-wing Likud in three successive elections in under a year before forming an emergency government with it in May to combat the pandemic.
Israel went into a second nationwide lockdown last month and is now grappling with one of the worst outbreaks in the world on a per capita basis. The emergency government has been roiled by infighting and has faced widespread criticism over its confusing and often contradictory response to the pandemic.
“I can no longer sit in a government in which I don’t have an ounce of trust in the person at its head,” Zamir tweeted. "I have unfortunately determined that the coronavirus crisis and its terrible impact is at best in second place in the list of priorities of the prime minister. Personal and legal considerations are at the top of Netanyahu’s priorities.”
Netanyahu has been the target of weekly demonstrations outside his official residence for months, with protesters calling on him to resign over his trial on multiple corruption allegations and his response to the pandemic.
Earlier this week, Israel’s parliament passed a law that would allow the government to curtail public protests during the lockdown, as Netanyahu’s critics accused him of trying to muzzle dissent. Netanyahu says the restrictions are needed to prevent transmission of the virus.
The Likud slammed Zamir’s decision to step down, accusing him of playing politics at a time when Netanyahu is “fighting around the clock in order to save...
