In recent days, Arab-Israeli lawmaker Ahmad Tibi has surprisingly been gaining sympathetic votes and surprising support for him to take over the position of Deputy Knesset Speaker. At a meeting between the heads of the coalition this past Sunday, the issue of appointing Knesset deputy speakers came up and all the heads of the coalition, with the exception of Ben Gvir, agreed that the appointment of Ahmad Tibi to the position should be allowed.

About nine representatives are to be appointed to the position of Deputy Speaker of the Knesset. From the beginning of the government's term until today, only five temporary deputies have been appointed whose roles are to both preside over plenary sessions for part of the time and to be a voice in the meetings of the Knesset presidency. The distribution of deputies is made between the coalition and the opposition with a majority of one for the coalition, currently, there are three in office. The representatives of the coalition and two of the opposition want to complete the appointment and also appoint a representative for the Religious Zionism Party and Otzma Yehudit.

ישנה שמועה מכוערת שהח"כים מהציונות הדתית מתכוונים להצביע בעד מינויו של תומך המחבלים @Ahmad_tibi כסגן יו"ר הכנסת.

אנא @oritstrock @rothmar @michalwoldiger @MKOhadTal @ofir_sofer @tzvisuccot תגידו שמדובר בפייק ניוז, ושאין מצב בעולם שאתם הולכים לתמוך במהלך הפסול הזה.

— Maurice Hirsch, Adv. 🇮🇱 עו''ד מוריס הירש (@MauriceHirsch4) July 4, 2023

Increasing the number of Deputy Speakers will lead to the appointment of MK Ahmad Tibi to the position and surprisingly this appointment was supported by Minister Yariv Levin, Shas Party leader Aryeh Deri and UTJ MK, Moshe Gafni. Smotrich did not express a firm position on the matter, while Ben Gvir firmly claimed that everything should be done to prevent Tibi from accepting the position. According to Ben Gvir at the meeting, it is impossible for a right-wing government to appoint Tibi to a significant representative position. Ben Gvir further said that one should not forget who Ahmad Tibi is and mentioned his past as an adviser to Yasser Arafat.

Yariv Levin proposed at the meeting to increase the quota of vice-chairmen to 11 or even 13 representatives and thus allow each party in the Knesset to choose its own representative. This maintains equality between the parties and will still result in a favorable appointment.

"מי שמתנגד לדיקטטורה בתל אביב - לא יכול לתמוך בדיקטטורה בג'נין ובשטחים בכבושים, זו צביעות וזה מוסר כפול וזה בדיוק היישום והתרגום של העליונות היהודית". כך אמר ח''כ @Ahmad_tibi על הגיבוי מצד האופוזיציה למבצע "בית וגן"@yairlapid @gantzbe pic.twitter.com/TYRZ9dMQlc

— ערוץ כנסת (@KnessetT) July 3, 2023

Although Tibi is technically considered to be in opposition to any form of Zionist government, according to the supporters of his appointment, it will be possible to work with him in an understanding way. The close personal relationship between Tibi, Gafni, and Deri also has affected their support for him for the position.