Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan of Bayit Yehudi has been given the 28th spot on the Likud list of candidates for the Knesset in the upcoming national elections in April.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed Wednesday to reserve the spot for a candidate from the Bayit Yehudi in exchange for the party merging with the Otzma Yehudit faction.
The prime minister proposed to give the spot to Ben-Dahan; he served as deputy defense minister under Yisrael Beytenu Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman.
Ben-Dahan was forced to leave his post when Liberman decided to resign in frustration in disagreement over the way the government was handling the violence at the border with Gaza, a number of months ago. He was born in Casablanca, Morocco in 1954, and immigrated to Israel in 1956.