Norwegian Law Passes Knesset

An expanded Norwegian Law was passed on Monday night with a vote of 66 to 23, with Prime Minister Netanyahu skipping the vote, the Jerusalem Post reported. The passage of this version is seen as a victory for Blue and White.

The law allows five ministers or deputy ministers of Blue and White, and two in other coalition parties, to leave the Knesset to become ministers or deputies, and be replaced by the next candidate on their respective party’s list.

Blue and White has 12 MKs who are currently ministers, which would leave them without enough members to carry out their parliamentary work in the Knesset.

In factions that have split, the new MKs will have 24 hours to decide which party to join. The bill would thus allow candidates of Yesh Atid and Telem, which are in the opposition, to instead join Blue and White in the coalition if they choose to split.

In United Torah Judaism, former MK Yitzhak Pindrus will now return to the Knesset.

Three Shas deputy ministers are expected to quit in favor of the next names on the party’s list: Uriel Busso, French immigrant Rabbi Yossi Taieb and Ethiopian immigrant Rabbi Baruch Gazahi.