Israel
Netanyahu's new cabinet: who’s who?
A slew of new roles have been created as Likud heads into coalition with several hard-right partners
December 30, 2022 17:32
A slew of new roles have been created as Likud heads into coalition with several hard-right partners
December 30, 2022 17:32On Thursday Benjamin Netanyahu’s new coalition received its official vote of approval in the Knesset ahead of the swearing-in ceremony.
The now six-time Prime Minister’s hard-right alliance garnered 63 votes out of the Israeli parliament’s 120 members.
Speaking to MKs today, Mr Netanyahu vowed to make the country of 9.4 million a ”world power” under his watch while outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid said the event marked "an uneasy transfer of the baton."
Here we take a look at the 31 ministers in Israel’s latest coalition, including several newly-created posts.
The Likud veteran who previously served as Prime Minister for 12 successive years is returning to government. Still under investigation on bribery and corruption charges, the 73-year-old has denied all wrongdoing and seems set on doing all he can to make his coalition work. Despite stressing that Likud is by far the largest party among its coalition bedfellows, his hard-right allies across several parties may prove difficult to keep in check.
“The one thing that is likely to be somewhat reassuring is that not everything that’s written in these [coalition] agreements will be carried out,” Sima Kadmon wrote in YNet. ”As we learned from Netanyahu, pledges are one thing and implementation is another.”
The Jaffa-born ex-general is a respected military expert but was forced to step down from his upcoming role as chief of general staff in 2011 after claims that he seized public lands for private use near his home. In 2012 a local planning committee partially cleared Mr Gallant of wrongdoing after admitting he had constructed his home on 350 square meters of property accidentally listed as his, meaning he had not been aware it was public land. The decision did not address the alleged construction of an illegal road to his house and an olive garden on nearby public lands being probed by the state comptroller and attorney general. He has previously served as Minister of Aliyah and Integration and Minister of Education.
The former Intelligence Minister was a shock appointment after Israel Katz had been widely tipped for the role. He will now take the job in rotation with Mr Katz.
The novelist and longtime political observer’s responsibilities are not yet clear.
This eleventh-hour appointment came after Thursday’s formal swearing-in ceremony, meaning Ms Gamliel will need to be separately confirmed. The erstwhile Social Equality and Environmental Protection Minister faced calls to resign after breaking lockdown rules in 2020, an incident which she said was an “error of judgement”.
After storming from talks with Mr Netanyahu on Wednesday Mr Katz was appointed to head up the Ministry for Energy. He later agreed to a rotation deal with new Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, although the details of the schedule are yet unclear.
Mr Chikli was booted from the Yamina party soon after being elected an MK for the right-wing alliance last year. He had refused to approve an agreement with the leftist Meretz party or the Islamist Ra’am party. He voted against his party 754 times and in July 2021 he opposed a planned law that would bar Palestinians from marrying Israelis and receiving citizenship. After previously sitting as an Independent, he was re-elected to the Knesset as a Likud MK in November.
The ex-deputy speaker of the Knesset and former whip sat as Likud chair during its recent spell in opposition.
Another Yahmina leaver, Ms Silman’s decision to quit the “Rainbow Coalition” in April 2022 left the government without a majority, contributing to its collapse just months later.
Last year the ex-Labour, Welfare, and Social Services Minister was handed a six-month suspended sentence after pleading guilty to charges of a conflict of interest and conspiracy to achieve a lawful purpose by improper means.
Ms Regev held the transport brief during Likud’s last administration and has also served as Sports and Culture Minister.
The tech magnate previously served as Mayor of Jerusalem and was eighth place on the Likud ticket in August’s primaries.
The first-time minister has backed the closure of the KAN public broadcaster and Israel’s Army Radio.
His role will also include liaising between the Knesset and the Netanyahu-led government, meaning key parts of the Education brief are to be handled by other departments.
The attorney has clocked up over a decade of service in Likud cabinets and is set to oversee a slew of controversial legal reforms, including plans to junk the Supreme Court’s veto over Knesset legislation.
This will be Mr Biton’s first ministerial role. The Office of the Attorney General previously ruled that he could not continue as both CEO of Shas and the party's Ma'ayan Hinukh Torani school network.
The freshman minister has already signed an order to delay the previous government's plans to enable private organisations to provide supervision services for kosher certification which the Chief Rabbinate currently has a monopoly on.
The role marks the ex-deputy interior minister’s first stint as a full minister.
The ex-religious services minister has an agreed rotation with his Shas colleague Yoav Ben-Tzur, who he will transfer the brief over to in two years should the government still be in power.
The Charedi party leader was slapped with a suspended sentence after pleading guilty to tax fraud earlier this year.
While current laws prohibit people handed custodial punishments in the previous seven years from becoming ministers, they fail to outline whether this applies to suspended sentences. Mr Deri was also jailed for 22 months between 2000 and 2002 after being found guilty of accepting the equivalent of $155,000 in bribes during his tenure as Interior Minister under Yitzhak Rabin.
The Religious Zionism leader with a history of anti-Arab rhetoric has been granted powers to appoint the head of COGAT, Israel’s unit responsible for civil affairs in the West Bank, which includes the construction of settlements. Washington fiercely lobbied against his ambitions to the defence portfolio. He supports Israeli sovereignty over the entire West Bank.
Ms Strock will oversee a new ministry that includes powers over settlements, military service, and pre-military academies. Her role is also set to receive responsibilities carved out from ministries that oversee culture and identity. An official from her department will sit as a member of local and national planning committees. In December she suggested doctors might refuse to treat gay people if the doctor felt the treatment violated their religious beliefs.
Mr Sofer’s inaugural appointment to the cabinet will oversee the crucial Immigration brief. His party backs reviewing the Law of Return to cut off the non-Jewish grandchildren of Jewish people from their current rights to emigrate to Israel.
He will have powers over law enforcement, including border police in the West Bank.
Despite the Kahanist “Jewish Power” part’s legal career, he is a convicted racist and has advocated for the expulsion of Arab-Israelis who “are not loyal” to the state.
The MK was first elected in November. He is the grandson of ex-chief Sephardic Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu and son of leading religious-nationalist Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu.
The 30-year-old is seen as a staunch supporter of Mr Ben-Gvir and will be the youngest minister in the new coalition.
The former Deputy Minister for Housing and Education will oversee the new department set to replace the Jerusalem and heritage ministry, which says it will: “strengthening Jewish tradition, deepening the knowledge and connection of all parts of Israeli society to tradition”.
After withdrawing from plans to be made the inaugural strictly-Orthodox security cabinet the newly elected MK will oversee housing and constriction.
The leader of the strictly-Orthodox party will oversee “Jewish national identity”, along with taking the responsibility for private educational programmes from the ministry for education.
He sparked outrage earlier this month after claiming forms of "liberal religion" are "darkness" and on Thursday he rejected claims he was anti-LGBT, arguing that he wished to oppose “LGBT-ism as an agenda and as a political movement”.
A long-running friend and ally of the incoming Prime Minister, Mr Derner was a key player in the negotiation of the Abraham Accords whose CV also includes a seven-year stint as Ambassador to Washington.