New chairs appointed across number of Knesset committees amid reshuffle
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. 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"

In a reshuffle, the Knesset House Committee votes to appoint new chairpeople to a number of minor Knesset committees dealing with issues ranging from science and technology to the fight against drugs and alcohol.
The Democrats’ Gilad Kariv will replace Yisrael Beytenu’s Oded Forer as chairman of the Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs, with Forer taking over the Special Committee for Strengthening and Developing the Negev and Galilee from National Unity MK Michael Biton.
Biton expresses anger that he was not appointed to head a new committee despite an agreement to do so.
“I asked to establish the Committee to Combat Poverty. The Knesset legal adviser formulated the committee’s responsibilities and powers, but MK [Yisrael] Eichler, chairman of the Labor and Welfare Committee, refused. I request that the committee be established this week and that the remaining replacements not be made until this committee is established,” he demands.
Likud MK Nissim Vaturi will take over the Knesset Special Committee for Oversight of the Israeli Citizens’ Fund — which until now has been chaired by Otzma Yehudit’s Limor Son Har-Melech, who is resigning from the coalition in protest of the ceasefire-hostage release deal.
Yesh Atid lawmaker Meirav Cohen will retain control of the Special Committee on the Treatment of Holocaust Survivors.
MK Ariel Kallner will succeed fellow Likud MK Boaz Bismuth as head of the Special Committee for Combating Drug and Alcohol Abuse, while Ra’am MK Yasir Hujeirat will take over the Science and Technology Committee from Hadash-Ta’al’s Ayman Odeh.
An MK from Odeh’s party is set to replace The Democrats MK Naama Lazimi at the helm of the Special Committee on Young Israelis but the party has not yet chosen who will take the position.
Addressing Hadash-Ta’al MK Ahmed Tibi, House Committee chairman Ofir Katz declares that he will “not appoint anyone who says he is happy about the release of prisoners to head the committee” — a reference to Odeh’s statement on Sunday evening that he was “happy for the release of the hostages and prisoners” as part of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.