Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, June 13, 2016. (Marc Israel Sellem/Pool)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon have agreed to a minor reshuffle of the cabinet that leaves Kahlon with greater powers.
The Economy Ministry, currently held by Netanyahu, will be handed to Kahlon’s Kulanu Party.
Kahlon himself is expected to hold the post alongside the finance portfolio.
Meanwhile, Kulanu will surrender the Environmental Protection Ministry to the ruling Likud party, Israel Radio reported.
According to sources, Jerusalem Affairs Minister Ze’ev Elkin, who lost the Absorption Ministry in the last reshuffle that saw the entry of Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu Party into the coalition in May, will receive the environment portfolio.
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Jerusalem Affairs Minister Ze’ev Elkin speaks with the parents of late Israeli soldier Oron Shaul outside the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on June 29, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Elkin will also continue to hold the Jerusalem portfolio.
The Environmental Protection Ministry has been without a minister since May, when Kulanu’s Avi Gabbay announced he would resign from the cabinet due to the Liberman appointment.
Liberman’s return to the cabinet also sparked the resignation of Netanyahu’s longtime ally Moshe Ya’alon, the defense minister replaced by Liberman. Both Gabbay and Ya’alon castigated the prime minister for appointing a defense minister they said was inexperienced and unqualified for the post.
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