Labour joins Netanyahu's coalition
A Labour Party official says his party has voted to join the incoming government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
The move gives a centrist tone to the coalition that has looked hard-line up to now.
Ofer Eini, head of the Histadrut labour union and a senior Labour Party operative, told Israel's Army Radio that the party's central committee agreed to Netanyahu's partnership offer.
Army Radio said the vote was 680 in favour and 507 against.
Netanyahu has signed coalition agreements with Yisrael Beitenu and Shas, two parties known for their tough policy lines toward the Palestinians, as is Netanyahu's own Likud Party. Labour, in contrast, has been in the forefront of Mideast peace efforts.
Separately, police dispersed rock-throwing Israeli-Arab youths with stun grenades and tear gas after a group of Israeli extremists marched through an Arab town demanding that residents show loyalty to the Jewish state.
The clashes in the northern Israeli town of Umm el-Fahm came at a time of increasing tensions between Israel's Jewish majority and its Arab minority, and residents said the march was a provocation.
The leader of the Israeli demonstrators, the well-known anti-Palestinian extremist Baruch Marzel, has been involved in violent attacks against Palestinians.
Dozens of Arab youths, their faces covered with checkered Palestinian scarves, heaved rocks at heavily armed black-clad Israeli police holding up shields. They responded with tear gas.
Israel's national rescue service said 16 people were lightly wounded, and Army Radio said 18 protesters were arrested.
