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Israeli govt narrowly survives no-confidence motion

TEL AVIV: The Israeli Government has narrowly survived a no-confidence motion over its decision to include works by a Palestinian poet on the school curriculum.

The motion, which was introduced by the opposition Likud, was defeated by 47 votes to 42, with three abstentions.

Monday's vote is not the last. In about 10 days, there will be another vote on Jerusalem, and it may be that for the first time there will be a majority against the government. It was the latest of a series of opposition-led parliamentary votes aimed at eroding Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's majority for peace moves with the Palestinians and Syria.

The Education Minister, Yossi Sarid, defended his decision to introduce Darwishg's works, saying Israeli school children should study them and learn to abandon clichs and stereotypes about their Arab neighbours.

Crossing party lines Darwish, who was banned from Israel for 26 years, writes of the pain of Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes during the Arab-Israeli wars.

The poems that Sarid proposed including in the high-school curriculum are considered controversial because they deal with Darwish's time in Israeli jails and the harsh treatment he received as a Palestinian prisoner.

The right-wing Likud noted that many member of religious parties belonging to the governing coalition had voted against the decision.

Gaps widening three coalition factions Ñ the National Religious Party, the ultra-Orthodox Shas party and the immigrants' party Israel B'Aliya Ñ have all voted against the government in recent weeks, demonstrating their opposition to concessions for peace favoured by Barak.

One Likud lawmaker, Silvan Shalom, said after the vote: "This proves that there is a very serious rift, a very serious crack (in the coalition), rent about ten days ago in the vote on the Golan referendum, and now it is widening".

He was referring to the recent opposition-sponsored bill that would make it more difficult to win approval from the electorate for any peace treaty with Syria.

Some of Barak's own coalition partners were among those who gave the bill its first, preliminary approval.

Opposition groups made it clear that in Monday's vote, Barak and not the Palestinian poet was their real target.

"Today's vote is not the last, you need to remember that in about another 10 days there will be another vote on Jerusalem," Shalom said, speaking on Israel's Channel One television.

"And there will be more recruitment and it may be that for the first time there will be a majority against the government".

Likud is teaming up with Jewish settlers in the West Bank in a public campaign against Barak, in the run-up to the motion of no-confidence over compromise with the Palestinians on Jerusalem.

Israel views East Jerusalem, which it captured in 1967, as part of its "eternal capital," while the Palestinians claim it as the capital of their future independent state. PPI