Diplomacy

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Likud MK to Become Israel’s First Druze Minister

Likud MK Ayoub Kara is expected to be named minister without portfolio on Sunday, an appointment that would make him the first lawmaker from Israel’s Druze community to serve as a full minister.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to make the appointment as part of a cabinet reshuffle ahead of a High Court of Justice ruling that could limit the number of portfolios he holds, The Times of Israel reported.

Kara currently serves as deputy minister for regional cooperation.

Eli Cohen, an MK from the Kulanu party, is also expected to be nominated as Economy Minister. The post is currently held by Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, who heads the Kulanu party.

In 2015, the Yesh Atid party petitioned the high court to bar Netanyahu from simultaneously holding the health, regional cooperation, communications, and foreign affairs portfolios, as well as the prime ministership. The court ruled 4 – 1, allowing Netanyahu to head multiple ministries, but three of the justices gave him eight months to lighten his load. Netanyahu subsequently appointed Yaakov Litzman to the health ministry and his ally Tzahi Hanegbi as minister of regional cooperation.

Netanyahu will retain his foreign affairs and communications posts.

In his role as deputy minister for regional cooperation, Kara told Tablet Magazine in September that relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors “are the best they’ve ever been.”

“Once, [Arab politicians] used to run away from me when they heard I’m Israeli,” Kara said, but now “we are praised by ministers and parliament members from places like Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Morocco.” Kara tempered his statement by noting that much of the praise is quiet due to what he called a “culture of hypocrisy.”

[Photo: Richter Frank-Jurgen / WikiCommons ]