Otzma Yehudit Party’s departure from the government and coalition, which will come into effect on Tuesday, will lead to a reshuffling in the government and Knesset.
The party was in charge of three ministries in the government – the National Security Ministry, the Negev and Galilee Ministry, and the Heritage Ministry.
According to a source, the National Security Ministry and Negev and Galilee Ministry will likely be given to existing ministers from the Likud. Agriculture and Raw Food Security Minister Avi Dichter, who served in the past as the internal security minister, is a leading candidate to reenter the position. The source said that the smaller Heritage Ministry will likely be incorporated into an existing ministry.
Amichai Eliyahu, who was the heritage minister, resigned from the Knesset, but his resignation from the government will bring him back to the Knesset.
The Norwegian Law allows MKs who are appointed to ministers to leave the Knesset and enable the next person on their party list to enter the Knesset.
Return to the Knesset
However, according to this same law, if a minister resigns, he returns to the Knesset, which applies in Eliyahu’s case.
Otzma Yehudit and the Religious Zionist Party ran in a joint list in the election, and Eliyahu’s return to the Knesset will push out MK Tzvi Sukkot (RZP).
The other Otzma Yehudit Party ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and MK Yitzhak Wasserlauf, did not resign from their positions as members of the Knesset, and therefore, their resignation from the government did not push out any existing MKs.
Eliyahu replacing Sukkot in the Knesset gives the party an extra MK at the expense of the RZP.
In order to counter this, Otzma Yehudit’s chairman, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also quit the Knesset, will likely issue a technical resignation in order to return to the Knesset and push out of MK Yitzhak Kroizer.
Smotrich will then be reappointed as finance minister and will serve simultaneously as a minister and MK.
The MKs from Otzma Yehudit also left their positions in the Knesset. These include the position of the National Security Committee’s chairperson, chairmanship of the Oversight of the Israeli Citizens’ Fund Committee, membership in the Judicial Selection Committee, and more.
Prior to the departure of the Otzma Yehudit Party, the coalition was already considering reshuffling some of the parliamentary positions, according to the source.
The departure means that a larger number of positions will switch hands.