Published: 18 March 2022
Last updated: 4 March 2024
PM and FM said to be pushing coalition faction chiefs to attend seminar on strategic negotiations in Belfast with view to keeping diverse government together
PRIME MINISTER NAFTALI BENNETT and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid are reportedly seeking to send a delegation of faction chiefs to Northern Ireland for a seminar on negotiation and conflict management so they can gain tools that will help them keeping their wobbly coalition from falling apart.
The offices of Bennett (Yamina) and Lapid (Yesh Atid), who is is set to become prime minister under a rotation agreement, recently asked the heads of Knesset factions to join bureau directors and branch managers on the trip to Belfast, where they will participate in a seminar on strategic negotiations, the Walla news site reported Sunday.
A coalition source told the website that the goal of the trip will be “to receive practical tools for mediation and resolution of disputes and disagreements.”
“This coalition is very complex and maintaining it requires constant negotiations, so that we can learn from the processes in Ireland in dealing with the daily life of the coalition,” the source said.
Both Bennett’s and Lapid’s offices confirmed the details, the report said.
According to the report, the location for the proposed seminar was chosen so that participants can learn from experience gained in ending the decades-long conflict in Northern Ireland between UK-aligned unionists and rival nationalists who wanted the territory to join with independent Ireland. A peace deal, the Good Friday Agreement, was signed in 1998.
FULL STORY Bennett, Lapid looking to Northern Ireland conflict for lessons on gluing coalition (Times of Israel)
Photo: Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid (L) attend a Knesset plenum session on January 31 (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
