Israel’s new government, the 37th, and the sixth headed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, will be sworn in today, Thursday, after Netanyahu presented his coalition agreements to the Knesset 24 hours earlier as required by law. The swearing-in ceremony is scheduled to take place at 11 am in the Knesset plenum. The plenum will then vote on whether to accept Amir Ohana, the first openly gay person to hold the position of minister in an Israeli government, as speaker of the Knesset, this despite the fact that the government includes a homophobic party and parties that oppose rights for LGBTQ people.
According to reports, there will not be a traditional transfer of power ceremony between Netanyahu and Prime Minister Yair Lapid following the swearing-in. Similarly, Netanyahu had refused to hold such a ceremony for Naftali Bennett when he took over as prime minister a year and a half ago.
On Wednesday, the Likud party lawmakers met together with Netanyahu for the first time since the November 1 election. Prior to the gathering, Netanyahu met individually with each lawmaker to inform them of their new positions in the government. Several long-time party lawmakers and former ministers did not receive ministerial positions, leading to some public and private grumbling.