The cabinet voted on Sunday to approve the appointment of New Hope MK Meir Yitzhak Halevy as deputy education minister.
Halevy will be the sixth deputy minister, joining Idan Roll (Yesh Atid), Yoav Segalovitz (Yesh Atid), Yair Golan (Meretz), Abir Kara (Yamina) and Alon Schuster (Blue and White).
There are 28 ministers. Of the 34 ministers and deputies, 21 have quit the Knesset via the Norwegian Law. Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai quit the Labor list before he would have entered the Knesset.
Halevy will remain an MK. The coalition fell to only 60 active MKs on Thursday, when Yamina MK Shirley Pinto gave birth to her second child, a girl.
There is no maternity leave for Knesset members. The coalition could have trouble defeating Monday’s no-confidence votes with a narrow 60-59 majority.
The opposition has refused to pair off with Pinto. But Joint List MK Aida Touma-Sliman, who is set to head the Knesset Committee for the Status of Women, said she would be willing to pair off with Pinto, though has not been asked.
Sources in the coalition leadership said they preferred to have Pinto pair off with an MK from Likud.
“We dare those so-called feminist MKs in Likud to reject a request from a woman who just gave birth three days earlier,” said a senior coalition source.