Ben Gvir reappointed police minister as Knesset okays his party’s return to government
Far-right Otzma Yehudit rejoins hours before critical budget vote, raising Netanyahu’s majority to 68; Ben Gvir links move to resumption of Gaza war after he opposed hostage deal
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Lawmakers voted 65-46 to ratify Otzma Yehudit chairman Itamar Ben Gvir’s reappointment as a cabinet minister on Wednesday evening, officially bringing his far-right Otzma Yehudit party back into the coalition only hours ahead of a critical budget vote in the Knesset plenum.
Ben Gvir again took over the reins at the National Security Ministry while fellow Otzma Yehudit MKs Amichai Eliyahu and Yitzhak Wasserlauf were respectively reappointed as heritage minister and the minister for the Negev, Galilee and national resilience.
Following the vote, Ben Gvir was filmed embracing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“I am returning tonight to manage the National Security Ministry,” Ben Gvir said, boasting of having worsened conditions for security prisoners and expanded gun ownership during his previous stint in the cabinet.
“A lot of work lays ahead of us, and I will continue, together with my ministry staff, to implement my policies in the prison service and the police.”
He added that his return came after Israel decided to resume the fighting in Gaza and thanked Netanyahu, promising that the pair “will work for the entire people of Israel.”
In a tweet, Wasserlauf pledged to the residents of the Negev and the Galilee that he would be “your voice, your messenger, your faithful servant.”
The Knesset vote came less than a day after Otzma Yehudit announced in a joint statement with Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party that it was returning to the coalition, just under two months after quitting the government to protest fellow ministers’ approval of a hostage release deal and Gaza ceasefire agreement with Hamas.
As he quit the government, Ben Gvir pledged that he and his colleagues would “not return to the government table without a complete victory against Hamas and the full realization of the war’s goals.”
After Otzma Yehudit left the coalition, the cabinet approved the temporary appointment of Tourism Minister Haim Katz to the three ministerial positions left vacant by the party. It was widely believed that the reason for the temporary appointments was Netanyahu’s desire to signal to Ben Gvir that the portfolios were waiting for him, should he wish to rejoin the coalition.
Otzma Yehudit’s return Wednesday was welcomed by Likud cabinet members, including Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, who boasted that the government was “stable” and would finish its term, and Social Equality Minister May Golan, who exulted that “the right-wing government is united and stronger than ever.”
“It’s a strange world. A faction resigns from the government because lives are being saved, and the same party returns to the government when they are being abandoned,” opposition MK Naama Lazimi (The Democrats) declared following Wednesday evening’s vote.
Ben Gvir’s reappointment was “madness,” she said.
Following the announcement of his return, the cabinet on Tuesday evening voted unanimously to reappoint Ben Gvir, Eliyahu and Wasserlauf — disregarding Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara’s insistence that doing so would not be possible from a legal perspective.
Although the Attorney General’s Office press statement Tuesday night did not provide further details on this issue, Baharav-Miara was likely referring to her concerns regarding the legality of actions and behavior taken by Ben Gvir when he was serving as national security minister before he quit the government.
The pair have frequently sparred in the past, with the attorney general calling on Netanyahu to weigh firing Ben Gvir for illegal intervention in police conduct and Ben Gvir in turn accusing her of engaging in a fishing expedition against him and demanding her termination.
The budget
Ben Gvir’s return to government raised Netanyahu’s majority to 68 seats in the 120-member Knesset hours before the series of critical votes on the 2025 state budget, all but ensuring that the prime minister’s ultra-Orthodox allies will not be able to block its passage.
Writing to the prime minister earlier this month, three MKs belonging to the United Torah Judaism party’s Hasidic Agudat Yisrael faction warned that they would vote against the budget unless such exempting yeshiva students from mandatory military service was passed first.
The 2025 state budget must be passed by the end of March or the government will automatically fall, triggering early elections.
Ben Gvir’s expected support for the budget marked a significant shift from his behavior in recent months.
Leading up to his exit from the government in January, the ultranationalist politician — who has a history of clashing with his political allies — began voting against the coalition on important budget-related bills. Due to Otzma Yehudit’s opposition, Netanyahu was forced to leave his hospital bed in December while recovering from surgery in order to cast a ballot to ensure a critical bill was approved.
Sukkot in Norway?
Ben Gvir’s return will have significant ramifications for Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party, which lost a Knesset seat after Otzma Yehudit left the coalition.
When Amichai Eliyahu became heritage minister in 2023, Otzma Yehudit MK Yitzhak Kroizer became an MK under the so-called Norwegian Law, which allows ministers and deputy ministers from large factions to resign from the Knesset, with their seats filled by members of their parties.
However, Eliyahu’s resignation from the cabinet did not push Kroizer out of the Knesset. Instead, it forced the resignation of Religious Zionism MK Zvi Sukkot, who held a lower spot on the two parties’ joint electoral list in the 2022 legislative election.
Asked if there were any plans to return Sukkot’s seat under the Norwegian Law, an Otzma Yehudit spokesman said it was too early to say while a spokesman for Smotrich replied that such a move was “definitely what’s expected.”
Speaking with The Times of Israel, an Otzma Yehudit source said that neither Eliyahu nor Wasserlauf would be able to resign under the Norwegian Law — Eliyahu because he has already resigned once and is barred from doing so again and Wasserlauf because he represents a one-man faction within the party that would no longer have Knesset representation were he to do so.
As such, it is likely that Ben Gvir himself would resign his Knesset seat, although the issue is still being negotiated, the source stated.
