Bennett given okay to retake Education Ministry

Naftali Bennett has been given the go-ahead to retake his position as education minister, after resigning from the post last week in order to return as a Knesset member.

The opposition boycotted the vote in protest, allowing Bennett to easily reclaim the ministerial post 28-0.

Bennett, who left the Knesset to become a non-MK minister under a recently passed law his own party pushed through, was forced to briefly resign on Wednesday as part of a bureaucratic procedure needed for him to rejoin the Knesset.

His Jewish Home Party was left short a warm body to fill a seat last week after the resignation of Yinon Magal, who left the parliament under a shadow of accusations of sexual misconduct. Rather than allow a member further down the slate to claim the spot, Bennett decided to rejoin the Knesset himself.

Ahead of the vote, Joint List MK Dov Khenin slammed the procedure as a “joke.”

“This seems like a disgrace, there’s no other way to term this move,” Khenin said, according to a Knesset transcript. “Everything just to block Avi Wortzman from the Knesset. It would be funny if this joke weren’t at the expense of the Knesset and the Israeli public.”