On Thursday, Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Israel, leading the most right-wing and religiously conservative government the country has ever seen, The Associated Press reports.
His sixth term in office marks his continued dominance in Israeli politics for over a decade.
The new government has promised to prioritize settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, provide substantial subsidies to ultra-Orthodox allies, and push for significant reform of the judicial system.
Netanyahu, who has served as Prime Minister from 2009 until 2021 and previously in the 1990s, is currently on trial for fraud, breach of trust, and accepting bribes in three corruption cases, which he denies.
“I hear the constant cries of the opposition about the end of the country and democracy,” Netanyahu said after taking the podium in parliament ahead of the government’s formal swearing-in on Thursday afternoon.
His speech was repeatedly interrupted by heckles and jeers from opposition leadership, who at times chanted “weak.”
The prime minister went on to say, “Opposition members: to lose in elections is not the end of democracy, this is the essence of democracy.”
Netanyahu’s government is made up of a hard-line religious ultranationalist party, two ultra-Orthodox parties, and his own nationalist Likud party.
