(Jewish Link Staff and combined sources) Lawmakers voted 65-46 to ratify Otzma Yehudit chairman Itamar Ben Gvir’s reappointment as a cabinet minister on Wednesday evening, March 19, officially bringing his far-right party back into the coalition. Ben Gvir again took over the reins at the National Security Ministry while fellow Otzma Yehudit MKs Amichai Eliyahu and Yitzhak Wasserlauf were respectively reappointed as heritage minister and the minister for the Negev, Galilee and national resilience.

The Knesset approval is the final stage after the government approved their reappointment in a government meeting on Tuesday evening.

The government ignored the directive of Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara, who wrote to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Ben-Gvir could not be reappointed to the position due to an ongoing High Court petition against his conduct, which allegedly included illegal involvement in operational matters.