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 The ultimatum by Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, who heads the
ultra-nationalist Jewish Home party, further complicates U.S.
efforts to keep fraught negotiations from collapsing.
Bennett's party has 12 of the 68 seats in ruling coalition, and
should it quit, Netanyahu would have to find new allies to maintain
a working majority in the 120-seat parliament.
There was no immediate comment from Netanyahu's office, but senior
members of his right-wing Likud party dismissed Bennett's
announcement as an "empty threat".
Bennett says the Palestinians should not have any say in how Israel
deals with its own citizens. "The emerging deal, if it includes the
release of murderers with Israeli citizenship, damages Israeli
sovereignty," Bennett said in a statement.
"If the proposal passes, the Jewish Home will quit the government,"
he said.
As part of a deal to revive moribund peace talks last July, the
Israelis agreed to release 104 Palestinian prisoners in four
batches. However, it failed to set free the final group at the end
of last month, triggering a crisis in the negotiations.
ROW OVER PRISONERS
The Palestinians said they were assured by Washington that a handful
of Arab prisoners with Israeli citizenship would be included in the
release program, but Israeli officials have said they never made any
such commitment.
The United States is trying to piece together a deal between the two
sides to allow talks to continue beyond an initial April deadline,
and Palestinian negotiators say the release of long-serving Arab
Israelis must be part of the accord.
Following Israel's failure to free the final batch of prisoners,
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas responded by signing 15
international treaties, including the Geneva Conventions on the
conduct of war and occupations.
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Israel said Abbas was reneging on a commitment not to take
unilateral steps aimed at boosting the Palestinians' quest for
statehood during the July-April talks window.
In response, Netanyahu has imposed economic sanctions against the
Palestinians and limited contacts with their leadership even as
negotiators from both sides continued to meet to try to break the
logjam.
Washington said on Thursday the two sides were making progress but
dismissed suggestions an agreement to extend the talks had been
struck.
Bennett said earlier this week that the talks were dead and called
on Netanyahu to annex major Jewish settlement blocs built on land
Israel seized in 1967.
Deemed illegal under international law, the settlements are on land
the Palestinians want for their future state.
(Editing by Crispian Balmer and Tom Heneghan)
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