Bezalel Smotrich

Biography

Minister of Finance, Religious Zionism chair

Age

45

Lives in

Givat Rashi neighborhood in the settlement of Kedumim, Judea and Samaria

Education

Sha'alvim Yeshiva junior high school; 'Yerushalayim LeTze'irim' yeshiva high school; Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva; Kedumim Yeshiva; LLB at Ono Academic College; Master's studies in public and international law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (not completed)

Service

Enlisted at age 28 and served for about a year and four months as an assistant operations officer in the Central Arena of the General Staff's Operations Division

Before politics

Operations director of the Regavim movement; director of the Kedumim yeshiva; served in the IDF as an operations sergeant in the Operations Division of the General Staff

Public roles

Minister of Finance (since 2022); minister in the Ministry of Defense responsible for the Settlement Administration (since 2022); chair of the Religious Zionism faction; former Minister of Transport and Road Safety (2019–2020); former MK (2015–2023); former chair of National Union–Tkuma; former Deputy Speaker of the Knesset

Main political focus

Promoting right-wing policy on settlement, the economy and law

Milestones

Initiated the Regularization Law with MK Yoav Kisch to regularize settlement in Judea and Samaria (passed 2017, struck down by the High Court of Justice in 2020); initiated the Public Service (Declaration of Assets) Law, passed in 2016; as Transport Minister he promoted the Nativ Plus project and accelerated the electrification of the railway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv

Key principles

Notable tweets ⓘThe numbers are as of when they were collected.