Fourteen newly sworn-in ministers presented resignation letters from the Knesset to Speaker Mickey Levy on Sunday night to allow other party members to take their place in the legislature through the so-called Norwegian Law.
The Expanded Norwegian Law, which was passed on June 15, 2020, enables ministers to resign their Knesset seats to allow the next candidates on their party lists to take their place. Any minister who subsequently leaves the cabinet automatically reverts to becoming an MK and displaces the person for whom they made way.
The ministers’ resignations will go into effect on Tuesday night, 48 hours after the resignation letters were submitted to Levy.
In Blue and White, Aliyah and Integration Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata, Science and Technology Minister Orit Farkash-Hacohen and Culture and Sport Minister Chili Tropper resigned their Knesset seats. They will be replaced by Mofid Mari, a Druze activist and former mayor of Hurfeish, a Druze village in the Upper Galilee; Cape Town-raised former MK Ruth Wasserman Lande and veteran environmentalist Alon Tal.
Tal was born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina. He is the founder of the Israel Union for Environmental Defense and the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies and was appointed as chairman of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Public Policy in 2017.
Tal will be the eighth US-born MK, following Yehuda Ben-Meir (National Religious Party), Marcia Freedman (Meretz), Meir Kahane (Kach), Dov Lipman (Yesh Atid), Michael Oren (Kulanu), Yehudah Glick (Likud) and Moshe Tur-Paz (Yesh Atid).
“May I have the strength, the courage and the wisdom to bring benefit to my country and its people,” Wasserman Lande said in response to her return to the Knesset.
In Labor, Public Security Minister Omer Barlev quit via the Norwegian Law. Haifa city councilwoman Naama Lazimi will enter the Knesset in his place.
In Yamina, Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana resigned and will be replaced by deaf activist Shirley Pinto.
In Meretz, Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg and Regional Cooperation Minister Esawi Frej resigned. They will be replaced by former MK Michal Rozin and former Tel Aviv city councilwoman Gaby Lasky, a controversial human-rights lawyer who often represents Palestinians in cases against the IDF.
In New Hope, Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel and Construction and Housing Minister Ze’ev Elkin quit in favor of Eilat Mayor Meir Yitzhak Halevy and former MK Zvi Hauser.
In Yesh Atid, Economy Minister Orna Barbivay resigned. She will be replaced by Tania Mazarsky, the deputy mayor and director of Leumit Health Services Medical Centers in Karmiel. Tourism Minister Yoel Razvozov resigned in favor of Beersheba city councilwoman Yasmin Sax Fridman.
Yisrael Beytenu ministers Avigdor Liberman, Oded Forer and Hamed Amar quit the Knesset on Monday morning. Their replacements are Tel Aviv University School of Government head Yossi Shein, attorney Limor Magen Telem and Elina Bardach-Yalov.
Eliyahu Baruchi and Yaakov Tessler of United Torah Judaism and Yosef Taieb of Shas left the Knesset automatically on Sunday when the ministers who quit to make way for them two months ago returned to the Knesset.