Moshe Kahlon
Moshe KahlonMarc Israel Sellem/Flash 90

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu) announced on Thursday that he intends to take advantage of the Norwegian Law and resign from the Knesset while continuing to serve as a cabinet minister, in order to allow the next member on the Kulanu list to be sworn in as an MK.

Kahlon’s announcement was made during a meeting with Kulanu members in the Druze village of Daliyat al-Karmel, near Haifa.

The Norwegian Law, which was approved in July, allows a Minister to resign from the Knesset and thus allow another Knesset member from his party to enter the Knesset.

Jewish Home chairman and Education Minister Naftali Bennett took advantage of this law and resigned from the Knesset in order to allow MK Shuli Muallem-Refaeli to join the Knesset. However, following Yinon Magal’s resignation from the Knesset, Bennett temporarily stepped down from his ministerial post, regained his status as an MK and then resumed his ministerial post.

Upon Kahlon’s resignation, the next person on Kulanu’s list to enter the Knesset will be Akram Hasson, who served as an MK with Kadima for less than a year between 2012 and 2013.

The 56-year-old Hasson, a member of the Druze community, is a former mayor of Daliyat al-Karmel and is currently the president of Carmel College.

He was briefly named head of the Kadima party when Shaul Mofaz stepped down from politics before the last election. However, just several days later Hasson left Kadima and joined Kulanu.