The decision is largely decisive at this stage, as parliament is at a break, although opposition sources said they saw it as a further opportunity to weaken the coalition, encourage autonomy and oust the government. According to Jewish media sources on Sunday, the measure – which will last two weeks and is coordinated with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid – is aimed at easing pressure on the party, as well as preventing a permanent rupture with the government. Raham denounced Israeli security forces for the violence at the Jerusalem shrine and one of the Islamic State lawmakers threatened to leave the coalition. However, Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas downplayed such a prospect and repeatedly called for calm. The decision to temporarily freeze was taken during a Sunday meeting of the Surah council of the Southern Islamic Movement – Ra’m’s umbrella organization – to address violence in the holy site of Jerusalem. Get the Times of Israel Daily E-mail and never miss our top stories By registering, you agree to the terms The council can make decisions about the party and also has the power to order Knesset members to resign from the coalition. The Islamic Movement, founded in the 1980s, came to the fore last year after Raham, who has four seats in the Knesset, joined the coalition government, the first Arab party to do so in decades. Senior officials of the Islamic Movement gather in Kfar Qasim on Saturday, January 22, 2022, to elect a new leadership. (Courtesy of: Islamic Movement) The movement is unofficially divided between its most radical “northern” branch and its “southern” leadership, which is considered more moderate. Israel banned the north for alleged terrorist links in 2015. Unlike some of his predecessors, Abbas has taken a realistic approach. Earlier Sunday, a senior religious figure in the Southern Islamic Movement called on Raham to strengthen the coalition for the conflict. Sources said that as tensions around Temple Mount escalated as the Knesset was in the middle of its spring break, Ra’m officials hoped that until parliament convened again on May 9, the situation would calm down. . Israeli border police patrol near the Lion Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City as Palestinians wait to enter the Temple Mount complex on April 17, 2022. (Ahmad Gharabli / AFP) However, some have suggested that the opposition should use Raam’s membership freeze to step up its efforts to overthrow the government. Walid Taha, Chairman of the Knesset Committee on Home Affairs and Environment, is chairing a committee meeting in the Knesset, Jerusalem, on November 15, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel / Flash90) And Ra’am MK Walid Taha said shortly before the decision was announced that the coalition was “obviously” heading for collapse. “We believed that this government would behave differently,” he said, citing what he called “provocative” Jewish visits to the Temple Mount as the cause of the latest violence. The government, he accused, “allowed a few hundred fascists” to create problems. The current government has come to the brink of collapse in recent days after MK Idit Silman, a member of Bennett’s Yamina party, left the coalition, losing its slim majority. The 120-member Knesset is now at an impasse, with the coalition and the opposition holding 60 seats each. Some have suggested that the Joint Opposition List, an Arab majority party separate from Benjamin Netanyahu’s opposition bloc, could help the coalition pass some votes and prevent it from falling into a vote of no confidence. The party itself has issued conflicting messages on the issue. 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