The three-mandate Bayit HaYehudi Party signed a coalition agreement with Likud. The party will receive the science portfolio, which will go to the party�s leader, Rabbi Dr. Daniel Hershkowitz. The party will also hold the chair of the Knesset Education Committee for a third of the government�s term as well as the chair of the Knesset Child Rights Committee.

The coalition agreement also accommodates the party�s request to permit an MK to resign from Knesset and permit another person on the party roster to enter in his place. This is to permit Hershkowitz to resign, remaining a cabinet minister but not an MK, and clearing the way for the fourth man on the party list, veteran MK Nissan Slomianski.

(Yechiel Spira � YWN Israel)