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Israel swears in new parliament amid call for unity

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AP Jerusalem

Members of Israel's parliament are being sworn in at the Knesset, the country's legislature, three weeks after a tumultuous national election.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Tuesday delivered a message of national unity to the 120 members of parliament ahead of the swearing in ceremony in Jerusalem, calling upon them "to fight for our common home where secular, religious, ultra-Orthodox, Jews and Arabs ... right and left can find themselves equal."

He urged them to "put down the cudgels of elections and to clean up the mess" after the "difficult election campaign" that saw Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prevail.

Netanyahu has been tasked with building a governing coalition after his Likud party and its ultra-Orthodox and nationalist allies won a 65-seat majority.

 

Simultaneously, the long-serving premier faces an upcoming hearing over a battery of corruption allegations.

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First Published: Apr 30 2019 | 7:40 PM IST

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