New Israeli MPs sworn in, President Rivlin calls for unity

Members of Israel’s parliament were being sworn in at the Knesset, the country’s legislature, on Tuesday, three weeks after a tumultuous national election.

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

The president urged MPs of the 21st Knesset to “put down the cudgels of elections and to clean up the mess” after the “difficult election campaign.”

Prime Minister Benjamin 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.