Israeli Housing Minister Goldknopf resigns from Knesset under Norwegian Law

United Torah Judaism chairman and Housing and Construction Minister MK Yizhak Goldknopf, Culture and Sports Minister Micky Zohar and Tourism Minister Haim Katz handed in their resignations to Knesset speaker MK Amir Ohana on Wednesday, becoming the third, fourth and fifth ministers to do so under the Norwegian Law.

The Norwegian Law enables ministers to resign their positions as Knesset members in order to focus fully on their roles as ministers. This enables the next person on the party list to enter the Knesset.

This means that Yizhak Pindros, who served as an MK in the previous Knesset, will once again become an MK. In the Likud, Dan Illouz and Ariel Kellner also will become MKs.

The other ministers to resign already include Minister in the Welfare and Social Affairs Ministry Yoav Ben-Tzur from Shas, and Heritage Amichai Eliyahu from Otzma Yehudit.

This brought into the Knesset Otzma Yehudit MK Yitzhak Kroizer, who was sworn in on Monday, and Shas MK Yonatan Mashriki, who was sworn in on Wednesday.

Additional ministers are expected to follow.

Margi flip-flops on resigning from Knesset

Welfare and Social Affairs Ministry Ya'acov Margi of Shas announced on Tuesday morning that he, too, would resign. However, he changed his mind later on in the day.

Shas put out a statement saying that the official reason was because Margi was an "excellent parliamentarian" whose capabilities were needed in the Knesset.