Two far-right lawmakers are set to take over chairmanships of two parliamentary committees left vacant for the past two months since the ultra-Orthodox Shas party withdrew from all coalition roles it held in the Knesset.

Shas quit the panels to protest the coalition’s failure to pass a law exempting most yeshiva students from army service.

In a statement on Wednesday evening, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that MK Zvi Sukkot of his Religious Zionism party would be appointed chair of the Knesset Education Committee in place of Shas’s Yosef Taib.

Sukkot, who was recently questioned by police over his participation —  along with other coalition MKs — in a mob that rioted and broke into the IDF’s Sde Teiman military base, said he was “excited to receive the great honor” and that he will “work with all my strength for the benefit of education in Israel.”

According to Channel 12, Smotrich’s decision to tap Sukkot for the role instead of party MK Moshe Solomon, who already serves on the committee, may stem from Solomon’s outspoken criticism of the coalition’s controversial Haredi draft bill.

In a separate statement on Thursday afternoon, Otzma Yehudit chairman and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir announced that party MK Limor Son Har-Melech will soon become chair of the Knesset Health Committee in place of Shas’s Yoni Meshriki.

In a statement, Son Har-Melech said that........

© The Times of Israel