Who Is Israel Katz, Israel’s new defence minister?

EXPLAINER

As Israel wages war in Gaza and Lebanon, Prime Minister Netanyahu has replaced Yoav Gallant with a hardline ally.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Tuesday evening, replacing him with Israel Katz, a 69-year-old fellow Likud member who has been foreign affairs minister since 2019.

Katz is seen as a Netanyahu ally who will be more subservient, unlike Gallant whose relationship with the longtime leader became increasingly adversarial as the wars in Gaza and Lebanon carried on.

“We will work together to lead the defence establishment to victory over our enemies and to achieve the goals of the war: the return of all hostages as the most important moral mission, the destruction of Hamas in Gaza, the defeat of Hezbollah in Lebanon, the containment of Iranian aggression, and the safe return of the residents of the north and south to their homes,” Katz said in a statement after his appointment.

After Donald Trump’s presidential election win announced on Wednesday, Katz posted on social media that together, the United States and Israel will “strengthen the US-Israel alliance, bring back the hostages, and stand firm to defeat the axis of evil led by Iran”.

Who is Katz?

A hardline Israeli politician, Katz is a longtime ally of Netanyahu. He has held various ministerial portfolios since 2003, including agriculture, transportation, intelligence, energy, finance and twice, foreign affairs.

Katz was born in 1955 in the city of Ashkelon, a city built not far from the Palestinian village Majdal which was depopulated in the 1948 Nakba.

Katz joined the military in 1973 where he served as a paratrooper for four years. After his discharge, he studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

He unsuccessfully ran for a seat in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, in 1992 and again in 1996. In 1998, he finally won a seat and has since served on several committees.

In 2007, Israeli police suggested he be tried for fraud and breach of trust for political appointments while he was agriculture minister. The investigation was closed by the then-attorney general.

Some of his decisions in government have been deemed beneficial to Israel’s hyper-conservative Orthodox community and the country’s far-right settlers. He is largely seen as a figure who will be subservient to Netanyahu’s vision for the country and the wider region, which analysts say could include further displacement and ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank and the depopulation of southern Lebanon.

Unlike Gallant, Katz is a relatively peripheral figure in United States-Israeli relations.

Gallant had come to be relied on by the Biden administration as a voice of reason who was focused on returning the Israeli captives in Gaza and ending the war.

Katz, in contrast, has regularly clashed with the United Nations. He was one of the architects behind Israel’s push to get the international community to defund the UNRWA, which the Knesset banned from working in East Jerusalem last month.

In October, he announced that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was unwelcome in Israel. He tweeted a photoshopped image of Guterres kneeling in front of the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khameini.

5 אזרחים נרצחו הבוקר מירי ישיר של החיזבאללה לעבר המושבה הישראלית מטולה, בהם חקלאי ישראלי ו-4 עובדים זרים. אני שולח את תנחומיי למשפחות.

מזכ"ל האו"ם גוטרש @antonioguterres לא טרח לגנות את החיזבאללה ולקרוא לנקיטת סנקציות נגדו. הוא עסוק רק בלתקוף את ישראל ולהתרפס בפני ארגוני הטרור… pic.twitter.com/SNHA2UkjzF

— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) October 31, 2024

What about Palestine?

Katz is seen as antagonistic to Palestinians in general and the Palestinian Authority (PA), in particular.

As far back as 2011, he called for cutting off relations with the PA. More recently, he promised to “break and dissolve” the PA if the UN moved forwards with resolutions against Israel.

In August, he called for the eviction of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank.

“We need to address the [terror] threat exactly as we deal with terror infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinian civilians and any other step needed,” he said at the time.

He has previously used the threat of another Nakba against the Palestinians as well.

In 2022, addressing the Knesset, Katz said, “Yesterday I warned the Arab students, who are flying Palestine flags at universities: Remember 48. Remember our independence war and your Nakba, don’t stretch the rope too much. […] If you don’t calm down, we’ll teach you a lesson that won’t be forgotten.”