UTJ leaders Yitchak Goldknopf, chairman of Agudas Yisrael, and Moshe Gafni, chairman of Degel HaTorah, signed an interim agreement with the head of the Likud negotiations team Yariv Levin late Tuesday evening, outlining what positions the UTJ party members will receive.

Prime Minister-Elect Binyamin Netanyahu’s mandate to form a government expires on Sunday and he is expected to request a two-week extension from President Issac Herzog as he has not yet signed coalition deals with UTJ and Shas. The agreement with UTJ, formulated as a letter to Netanyahu, is not a final coalition agreement. The letter was reportedly requested by Netanyahu to present to Herzog as evidence of progress in negotiations as part of the expected request for an extension.

UTJ issued a statement saying: “Since it’s necessary to request an extension from the president, we have now signed that the issue of positions is closed, and tomorrow [Wednesday] there will be a meeting on the fundamental issues.”

According to the agreement, UTJ chairman Yitzchak Goldknopf will serve as Construction and Housing Minister, including authority over the Israel Land Authority, Moshe Gafni will serve as the chairman of the Knesset’s Finance Committee, and Uri Maklev will serve as a deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s office and the Transportation Ministry.

Meir Porush will serve as the Jerusalem and Heritage Minister and will be in charge of the Lag B’Omer event at Meron.

Yaakov Asher will chair the Knesset’s Internal Affairs and Environmental Protection Committees, Yisrael Eichler will chair the Labor and Welfare Committee, and Yaakov Tessler will serve as Deputy Minister in the Welfare Ministry or another ministry to be agreed with the Prime Minister.

Yitzchak Pindrus, who is expected to enter the Knesset under the Norwegian law, will chair the Committee for Public Petitions.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)