Parties Withdrawing from the Coalition Due to Ideological Differences
This week's announcement of the resignation of the ultra-Orthodox parties from the coalition marks a fairly common case of parties resigning due to matters of religion and state. The following historical analysis looks at parties that have withdrawn from their governing coalitions over the years and the ideological disagreements that led them to do so.
Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
In January 2025, three Otzma Yehudit ministers (Itamar Ben-Gvir, Yitzhak Wasserlauf, and Amichai Eliyahu) resigned from Netanyahu's government due to the firm opposition to the hostage deal approved by the government on January 17, 2025. Otzma Yehudit returned to the coalition just two months later, but this week saw the three ultra-Orthodox parties (Agudat Yisrael, Degel HaTorah and Shas) announce their withdrawal from the coalition amidst a failure to reach an agreement on conscription of ultra-Orthodox men to the IDF.
The coalition is shrinking and its majority is disappearing, as is the Prime Minister's ability to maneuver politically—but does that mean the current government is reaching the end of the road? Not necessarily. It is rare for such resignations to lead to a collapse of the coalition.
Looking to past experience, the table below presents prominent cases of factions that left the coalition due to ideological differences. It does not include cases in which ministers were dismissed by the prime minister. As can be seen, the majority of these exits came against a backdrop of foreign affairs/defense issues. Another salient issue behind parties leaving the coalition has been religion and state.
As stated, only a few of these resignations led directly to the end of the government and elections being brought forward. One notable such case was the departure, one after the other, of three small right-wing parties (Tzomet, Moledet, and Tehiya) from the right-wing government led by Yitzhak Shamir, at the end of 1991 and the beginning of 1992. This left the coalition with only 59 MKs, and consequently the elections for the 13th Knesset were brought forward.
Another well-known case was the rapid disintegration of Ehud Barak’s government in 2000. The resignation from the government of Meretz, and subsequently of Mafdal, Yisrael Ba’Aliya, and Shas, left the coalition without a majority in the Knesset. Subsequently, special direct elections for the prime minister were held, in which Barak was roundly defeated by the Likud candidate, Ariel Sharon.
There are several more borderline cases. For example, it is possible that the resignation of the Labor party from Ariel Sharon’s second government in November 2005 accelerated the prime minister’s decision to establish Kadima and call early elections, but it is also possible that this would have happened even without Labor leaving. Similarly, Yisrael Beytenu’s exit from the government toward the end of 2018 did not directly lead to the elections being brought forward, but it was one of the catalysts for it.
Significant previous cases of factions exiting the governing coalition