The Knesset Education Committee has been without a chairman since then-Blue and White MK Ram Shefa quit the Knesset two weeks ago to run in the Labor Party primary, in which he won the sixth slot on the list.
Since then, the Likud has been blocking Blue and White from replacing Shefa and filling the post, KAN Radio reported first. The report said the Likud was suffering from the trauma of Shefa enabling schools to open despite the opposition of the government in December.
"We will not enable an appointment out of concern that Blue and White will allow the committee to be used for their political needs," Coalition Chairman Miki Zohar (Likud) told The Jerusalem Post.
Blue and White's candidate to head the committee is MK Tehila Friedman, a graduate of the Mandel School for Educational Leadership's fellowship program. Friedman is not running for re-election to the Knesset and is seen by her colleagues as the ultimate professional.
But sources in Likud said no one representing Blue and White can be trusted at such a sensitive time.
Friedman said Zohar and Likud were making a mistake.
"Parliamentary oversight over the Education Ministry, which is failing to get out of lockdown, is indeed a political imperative -- of the public, that is," Friedman said. "The Likud and its Education Minister [Yoav Gallant] should be investing their efforts into figuring out how to get our education system and our lives up and running again, instead of investing all their energy into political manipulations.''