As per petitions to the High Court of Justice, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is compelled to distribute a number of cabinet posts that he has been running by himself. This includes the ministries of health, agriculture, social welfare, and diaspora affairs.

Some two years after leaving the post of health minister in protest over state-involved Chilul Shabbos, Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman once again assumed the ministerial post, as was expected to occur. Litzman’s appointment was approved at the cabinet meeting on Sunday morning, December 29, 2019.

Litzman’s staff issued the following statement: “Due to political and legal developments, MK Yaakov Litzman has been appointed Acting Health Minister instead of the role of Deputy Health Minister, the position he held until now after it became clear that the ‘deputy minister with ministerial authority’ powers given to him at the time were invalid in appointing a minister over him.”

The Australian Jewish community is far from pleased upon hearing of the appointment of Litzman, with many calling it a “slap in the face to the victims” of Malka Laufer, who is allegedly in Israel due to the assistance of Litzman. Laufer is the subject of an extradition request from Australia, where she allegedly assaulted over 70 students in her capacity of the principal of a frum girl’s yeshiva. Her next extradition hearing is scheduled to take place in January 2020.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)