The Knesset on Wednesday passed legislation to enable tens of thousands of illegally built Arab homes to be hooked up to the national grid.
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The so-called "electricity bill," which allows more than 130,000 Arab Israelis living on land defined as "agricultural" rather than "residential" to receive electricity, water and phone lines, passed by a single-vote majority of 61-0 in the 120-seat parliament.
Proposed in August by Knesset Internal Affairs and Environment Committee Chairman MK Walid Taha (Ra'am), the bill has been a source of friction between Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's coalition and the opposition, led by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
When Taha switched to speaking Arabic at the event, which was broadcast live on Israel television's Knesset channel, Likud MK Miki Zohar said: "I came this morning to work in the Knesset, the house of representatives of the State of Israel. When I hear Walid Taha explain the electricity bill in Arabic on the podium, it's as though I was elected to a Palestinian parliament. Unbelievable."
"The fact that you don't know Arabic is your problem," retorted Taha. "You don't understand it? Go learn the language."
Ahead of the pre-vote debate, Netanyahu and right-wing members of the opposition heckled Bennett and Yamina MK Nir Orbach for voting against an amendment that would have enabled outposts in Judea and Samaria to be connected to the national grid.
The affront prompted Bennett to stand up and verbally confront them, resulting in a shouting match.
"We will not surrender to bullying," the prime minister asserted. "I'm not afraid of you, and I won't let you burn down the country."
Opposition MKs then walked out of the final vote on the electricity bill.
Calling the passage of the power bill a "black Day for Zionism and democracy," Netanyahu tweeted that the "Bennett-Ra'am government today broke another anti-Zionist and anti-democratic record!
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"In doing so, it is preparing for the Islamic Movement's takeover of the Negev and the Galilee and fulfills a central pillar of the Palestinian plan to exercise the 'right of return.' In the same breath, the Bennett-Ra'am government voted against our proposal to connect the electricity of young settle[rs] in Judea and Samaria."
