Otzma Yehudit Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Almog Cohen, announced on Sunday that he was resigning from the government and would return to the Knesset, in order to push his bill proposal to build an airport in Nevatim across the finish line.
Cohen appointed a deputy minister on April 2 on the condition that he resign from the Knesset, and enable Religious Zionist Party MK Zvi Sukkot to remain in the Knesset.
According to what is known as the Norwegian Law, ministers can resign their Knesset posts, after which the next person on the party’s election list enters the Knesset.
If a minister resigns, he or she returns to the Knesset, pushing out the “Norwegian” MK who entered in his or her stead. However, an MK who is appointed a minister can only complete this process once in a given Knesset term.
Otmza Yehudit’s three ministers resigned from the government in January in protest of the hostage deal reached with Hamas.
Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu had resigned from the Knesset, and his return pushed out Sukkot.
Otmza Yehudit and the Religious Zionist Party, led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, ran on a joint ticket, and Sukkot’s entry on behalf of Eliyahu meant that Smotrich had an extra MK.
Eliyahu could not resign again. Otzma Yehudit’s other two ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Yizhal Wasserlauf, refused a demand by Smotrich to resign in order to enable Sukkot back in.
Smotrich's threat to resign
In return, Smotrich threatened to resign as finance minister in order to push out the next in line, Otmza Yehudit, MK Yizhak Kreuzer.
At this point, the prime minister’s office became involved, as Kreuzer is a member of the Judicial Selection Committee, and the prime minister did not want a coalition vote on that committee thrown away.
Instead, a deal was reached with Cohen, who fell out with Ben-Gvir last year and is not expected to run in Otzma Yehudit in the next election.
Cohen has championed building an international airport near Nevatim air base in the Knesset, and after resigning on Sunday, he accused the “deep state” (professional government echelon) of pushing instead for the airport to be built in the Jezreel Valley.
Cohen claimed that this was “against common sense, history, and the wishes of the residents.”
In order to overcome the hurdle, Cohen said he intended to pass a bill he initiated stating that the airport will be formed at Nevatim.
The bill proposal has already reached an advanced stage, but it is unclear if the rest of the coalition will support it.