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Israel
Livni calls for general election
Article published on the 2008-10-26 Latest update 2008-10-27 16:17 TU
Livni with President Perez earlier this week
(Photo: Reuters)
Israel's Foreign Minster Tzipi Livni asked President Shimon Peres to call elections, following the religious party Shas's refusal to join a coalition government. Livni held a cabinet meeting on Sunday morning, to tell ministers of her decision. She accused Shas of "blackmail" and extortion" over its conditions for joining a government.
"Recent days have turned the coalition demands impossible and I had to draw the line," Livni's office quoted her as telling ministers from her Kadima party.
Shas had demanded a ban on negotiations on the status of Jerusalem with the Palestinians and increased welfare benefits.
"When it turned out that everyone was taking advantage of this opportunity to make illegitimate demands, both financial and regarding the peace process, I decided to stop all this and go for elections," Livni said.
On Saturday evening she told the Haaretz newspaper that she would not be "blackmailed" and accused Shas of "extortion".
Despite the fact that Kadima has only 29 seats in the120-member Knesset, Livni told Haaretz, "I'm not afraid of elections."
The Labour Party, with 19 seats, had agreed to join a coalition but was reported to be reluctant to join a minority government. Livni was still negotiating with the left-wing Meretz party on Saturday, but had failed to bring two small groupings, United Torah Judaism and the Pensioners Party, on board.
On the West Bank Sunday a group of Jewish settlers rioted after the Israeli army destroyed an illegal settlement outpost as part of internationally-brokered agreements with the Palestinian Authority.
They smashed Muslim graves and poured paint on others, damaged over 80 Palestinian vehicles and two police cars and called for a "revenge attack" on the military.
There has been an upsurge of settler violence recently.
On Saturday more than 500 Palestinian police reinforcements went to the area, as part of a crackdown on the Islamic Hamas party.
