MKs okay transferring several issues under Interior Ministry to PM

By Sam Sokol 9 March 2026, 6:14 pm

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Sam 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"

Lawmakers approve transferring authority over several issues usually under the purview of the interior minister to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, several months after the Knesset approved the temporary transfer of a number of powers due to the lack of a full-time minister in the role.

Convening in an auditorium which serves as a protected space rather than in the plenum chamber, MKs vote 49-36 in favor of the move.

The Interior Ministry was previously run by the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, which left the government, though not the coalition, last summer over its failure to codify the Haredi community’s exemption from military service.

While Likud took over Shas’s portfolios, it did not appoint a new interior minister. Due to his graft trial, Netanyahu cannot directly take over the ministry himself, as the law bars ministers from serving in such a role while under criminal indictment and the ministry has continued to operate without a minister.