Who are the candidates to replace Tzipi Hotovely as Israel’s ambassador to the UK?

This summer, Tzipi Hotovely will finish her five-year stint as Israel’s ambassador to the United Kingdom.

In that time, the Likud politician and Netanyahu ally has been Israel’s representative at a time of unprecedented antisemitism, an explosion of anti-Israel protests, and has even been targeted by members of the UK Jewish community. 

While both governments have maintained the usual diplomatic pleasantries, ministers have admitted that they cannot “disguise the fact that there is a disagreement between the British government and the Israeli government on the conduct of the war” in Gaza.

Labour’s landslide victory – along with the successes and near success of pro-Gaza independent candidates and the Green Party, who also used the conflict in Gaza as a key issue during the election – means there are far less MPs who are vocally and enthusiastically supportive of Israel in the House of Commons.

Much like Hotovely’s appointment to succeed Mark Regev came a surprise to many – the appointment of an outspoken career politician as opposed to diplomat with years of service in the Israeli Foreign Ministry – it is impossible to rule out surprise appointments to succeed her in London.

Hotovely’s expressed positions prior to her appointment endeared her to Likud party members, they caused some controversy among British Jews.

When Hotovely was first appointed as Ambassador, she said that “Britain is terribly important and very friendly [to Israel], certainly under [Prime Minister Boris] Johnson, that is something we have to leverage and do important diplomatic work on.”

By contrast, on Sunday, Israel’s embassy was forced to put out a statement distancing itself from an Israeli government minister who labelled Sir Keir Starmer a “pathetic doormat”.

When Hotovely was announced as Netanyahu’s choice for the London posting, the former settlements minister generated outcry for her views on Palestinian statehood. 

But five years later, will her successor prove less controversial?

Sharren Haskel

Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel (right), (Image: X/Sharren Haskel).[Missing Credit]

Earlier this year, Haaretz reported that the 40-year-old vegan, who currently serves as Israel’s deputy foreign minister, was offered the position by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a way of guaranteeing her support for key items of legislation – including the budget and the draft bill. Both Netanyahu and Haskel denied this.

She first became a Member of Knesset in 2015, as the result of the political appointment of an ambassador by Benjamin Netanyahu: Danny Danon MK was made Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations and she was next in line on the list of Likud’s Knesset candidates.

As an elected representative, she was considered on the liberal wing of Likud, championing causes like LGBT rights – where she served as head of the Knesset’s LGBT caucus.

In 2020, she put forward legislation to legalise cannabis, something she said was “symbolic for my generation as a sign of our personal freedom”.

She backed Gideon Sa’ar’s attempt to challenge Benjamin Netanyahu for the leadership of Likud in 2019 and in 2020 left the party along with Sa’ar to form a new centre-right party under his leadership called a New Hope.

She was re-elected to the Knesset in 2021 and again in 2022 – when a New Hope and Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party ran a join list of candidates.

Despite Sa’ar’s split with Netanyahu and his backing of Bennett and Lapid’s government, in September 2024 he and New Hope MPs joined Netanyahu’s government, with Sa’ar appointed as foreign minister and Haskel as his deputy.

In office, she attacked controversial Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA as being under the “control of Hamas” and lamented the fact that Hamas held Israeli hostages in UNRWA facilities, something shared by Emily Damari in her conversation with Sir Keir Starmer.

Tzachi Braverman

In January, Israeli news site Walla reported that Netanyahu was considering appointing his chief-of-staff Tzachi Braverman to fill the position.

A spokesperson for Netanyahu appeared to caution against such reports, but didn’t completely deny them: “Recently, there hasn’t been a single position that hasn’t been ‘assigned’ to chief of staff Tzachi Braverman by the media … It would be better for the media to focus on more substantial matters than engage obsessively in endless vague and anonymous speculation.”

Braverman, a close ally of Netanyahu’s, accompanied the prime minister for his recent trip to the United States and his meeting with president Donald Trump.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly gifted a golden pager to Donald Trump during the pair's meeting at the White House (Image: Getty)Getty Images

In November last year, it was revealed that Braverman had been questioned by Israeli police over claims that he illegally altered records in the Prime Minister’s office.

These were emphatically denied and a spokesperson for Netanyahu called them “another complete fabrication that is also part of an unprecedented media witch hunt against the Prime Minister’s Office during wartime, designed to whitewash the grave failures of others on the night of October 7.”

The 65-year-old has previously served as Cabinet Secretariat, responsible for setting the agenda for the government meetings, ministerial committees and acting as a government spokesperson, between 2016-2021.

According to Israeli newspaper The Marker both Braverman, who has served as Netanyahu’s chief of staff since his re-election as prime minister in 2022, and his wife Nava are considered to be close allies of the prime minister and his wife Sara.

In 2023, Braverman and Nava, a judge, denied reports in Haaretz that Braverman had threatened members of Israel’s Judicial Selection Committee to use his position as Cabinet Secretariat to advance legislation to weaken the judiciary unless his wife was promoted.

He claimed the reports were “lies” and bemoaned the fact that his wife, “a professional and well-regarded judge, must again face lies and defamation due to Haaretz’s ceaseless campaign against the prime minister and his associates.”

Prior to working for Netanyahu, he held a number of positions working for the municipality of the central Israeli city of Ness Ziona, including as the city’s spokesperson.

Carmel Shama Hacohen

Mayor of Ramat Gan Carmel Shama Hacohen[Missing Credit]

Israeli newspaper Maariv reported last month that the Mayor of Ramat Gan, Carmel Shama Hacohen, was being lined up for the role.

Hacohen, who has been in office since 2018, didn’t deny that conversations had been had: “this is a very challenging role, especially during these turbulent times and my wife Vered would be more than pleased.”

Even though the 51-year-old, who is considered an ally of Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, said that the role would “clearly clash with my commitments to the city”.

Between 2009-2013 he served as a Likud Member of Knesset.

He attempted to gain re-election but came 32nd on the joint list of candidates fielded by Likud and Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu party, the party gained 31 seats.

Hacohen served briefly as an MK in June 2014 following the election of Revuen Rivlin as Israel’s president. However, in August 2014 Liberman – then Israel’s foreign minister – appointed Hacohen to serve as Israel’s ambassador to the OECD and UNESCO.

In 2011, he backed Netanyahu over a possible leadership challenge from Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom and likened the contest between the two to a football match between “Manchester United and Hapoel Jeljulia”, a low-league Israeli football team from the Arab town of Jeljulia.

The comments were light-heartedly raised in the Knesset by Arab MK Ahmed Tibi who said they were “ignorant” and mocked Hacohen for changing his name “which is Arab, because of feelings of inferiority”.

In 2010 he added “Hacohen” to his surname because he claimed he was constantly being mistaken for being Druze, rather than Jewish.

Despite his previous support for Netanyahu, in 2019, he called for him to resign over corruption charges: “A prime minister cannot govern while being charged with corruption and it would be good if he resigned”.

He repeated this in 2021 and said he was “Netanyahu’s biggest fan, but my children and the country are my top priority and even if Netanyahu is innocent, he isn’t the best for their future.”