Litzman can’t remain a deputy minister, says High Court

The High Court of Justice rules that Deputy Health Minister Ya’akov Litzman cannot continue to serve as deputy minister.

Litzman is the de facto minister, the justices rule, though officially Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds the minister’s post.

Litzman is head of the ultra-Orthodox Knesset faction United Torah Judaism, whose rabbis have resisted fully joining the cabinet in order not to be seen as legitimizing a Jewish state that does not fully adhere to Jewish religious law.

The court gives the government 60 days to either appoint Litzman a full minister or fire him from his post – potentially jeopardizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition.

Litzman tells Channel 2 in the wake of the verdict that the decision would be put to UTJ’s Council of Torah Sages, a group of rabbis who make many of the party’s key policy decisions.