Likud, Kulanu swap ministries in cabinet reshuffle

The cabinet on Sunday approved a portfolio shuffle that saw the Likud and Kulanu parties swap the environmental protection and economy ministries.

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, who leads Kulanu, will take on the economy portfolio, while the Likud’s Jerusalem Minister Ze’ev Elkin will receive the Environmental Protection Ministry.

Matters relating to employment were pared from the Economy Ministry and transferred to the Welfare Ministry under Likud minister Haim Katz.

The Economy Ministry has been held by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since Shas leader Aryeh Deri resigned from the position in November 2015. Deri later took up the Interior Ministry in January 2016.

Kahlon had been holding the Environmental Protection Ministry since May when previous minister and Kulanu party member Avi Gabbay resigned in protest of the appointment of Avigdor Liberman as defense minister in a coalition-building maneuver that brought his Yisrael Beytenu party into the government.

Previous defense minister Moshe Ya’alon resigned from politics in protest of the development, even though he was said to have been offered the Foreign Ministry. In that coalition shake-up, Elkin lost the Absorption Ministry to Yisrael Beytenu MK Sofa Landver.

Netanyahu continues to hold on to three other cabinet posts, the foreign, communications, and regional affairs ministries.