Likud and United Torah Judaism signed a preliminary coalition agreement Tuesday evening, paving the way for Prime Minister-elect Benjamin Netanyahu to form a government as the deadline for him to do so is fast approaching.
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As per the agreement, UTJ chief Yitzchak Goldknopf will take over the Housing and Construction Ministry and MK Moshe Gafni will chair the Knesset Finance Committee. The faction will also get control over the Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Ministry as well as deputy minister positions and several other Knesset committees.
Netanyahu has until Dec. 11 to form a government and is yet to reach coalition deals with all the parties in the right-religious bloc. Besides UTJ, Likud has so far signed preliminary agreements with the Religious Zionist Party led by Bezalel Smotrich and Otzma Yehudit headed by Itamar Ben Gvir, and most recently the UTJ.
The prime minister-elect is expected to ask President Isaac Herzog for a 14-day extension as talks with bloc leaders continue. Netanyahu will reportedly use this period to work out the final details of the coalition deals with the future ministers as well as give the Knesset more time to approve a law that would allow leader of the Sephardi ultra-Orthdox party Aryeh Deri, who has a tax fraud conviction, to take a ministerial position. Deri is set to become Israel's next interior minister.
i24NEWS contributed to this report.
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