From the Liveblog of
Monday, June 30, 2025
Deputy minister Tessler resigns from Knesset to allow fellow party member to take seat
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. 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"
Deputy Culture Minister Yaakov Tessler (United Torah Judaism) submits his letter of resignation from the Knesset to Speaker Amir Ohana, paving the way for the return of fellow UTJ MK Eliyahu Baruchi under the so-called Norwegian Law.
The Norwegian Law allows ministers and deputy ministers from large factions to resign from the Knesset, with their seats then filled by other members of their parties.
Baruchi, a member of the party’s Degel Hatorah faction, was forced out of the Knesset earlier this month as a result of the resignation of party leader and then-Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf. Goldknopf represents the party’s Hasidic Agudat Yisrael faction, meaning that by pushing Baruchi out of the Knesset, he minimized Degel Hatorah’s parliamentary representation, necessitating another resignation in order to restore balance between the two factions.
Goldknopf resigned from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet on June 12, after failing to pass a bill to dissolve the Knesset in an overnight vote as part of an ongoing political fight over the conscription of yeshiva students.
Yesterday, Deputy Minister for Artificial Intelligence Almog Cohen (Otzma Yehudit) announced his resignation from the cabinet in order to retake his Knesset seat under the Norwegian Law, a move that will push out Religious Zionism’s MK Zvi Sukkot.
Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit ran on a unified list in the last election.
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