International	Wed Mar 1, 7:45 am

Barak loses crucial vote on referendum bill

Ehud Barak Steve McNally reports for CBC Radio

The Israeli government has suffered an embarrassing and potentially destabilizing defeat in parliament.

Several members of the ruling coalition deserted Prime Minister Ehud Barak. They voted for a bill to get any future Israeli-Syrian peace treaty approved in a referendum. That could make surrendering the Golan Heights in exchange for peace impossible.

The bill requires that the referendum be passed by more than 50 per cent of all registered voters, rather than a majority of just those that actually vote.

The bill will still need to pass future readings before becoming law.

Some Israeli cabinet ministers have openly speculated that a referendum loss would mean the end of Barak's shaky coalition government, which was elected on a platform of obtaining peace deals with the Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese.

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