David Amsalem

David Amsalem was born on 11 August 1960 and grew up in the asbestos-hut neighborhood of Kiryat Yovel in Jerusalem.[1][5] He was one of seven children in a family whose parents had immigrated from Morocco. His father had taught Hebrew in Morocco, while both parents worked in cleaning jobs in Israel. In search of employment, the family also lived in Sderot and Kiryat Malakhi.[5] Amsalem has said that childhood poverty, including lacking money for summer camp, later influenced his support for legislation regulating municipal summer-camp prices.[5]

Amsalem studied at Or Etzion Yeshiva and served as a tank commander in the Israeli Armored Corps. After his military service, he earned a bachelor's degree in economics and business administration from Bar-Ilan University and worked in economic departments at the National Insurance Institute and Tax Authority.[5] He is a widower with two children and lives in Ma'ale Adumim.[1]

Amsalem entered Jerusalem municipal employment in 1993 after being selected through a tender as deputy director of the city's Sanitation and Beautification Department, known by its Hebrew acronym SHAF'A. The department maintained roads, sidewalks, municipal gardens and playgrounds, addressed road hazards, employed about 700 people, and worked with contractors and suppliers. After approximately seven years as deputy director, Amsalem became the department's director.[5] He spent about two decades working for the Jerusalem Municipality.[1]

Alongside his municipal duties, Amsalem was active in Likud affairs in Jerusalem from the 1980s onward, including organizing a political group and chairing the Jerusalem Likud branch.[5] After two periods of unpaid leave for political campaigns, he sought to return to the municipality at the end of 2013. City director-general Yossi Heyman blocked his return, saying that Amsalem had blurred the political and professional spheres. Amsalem described his departure as political retaliation by Mayor Nir Barkat.[5]

Amsalem entered the Knesset in 2015 after standing at number 21 on the Likud list.[6] During his first term, he chaired the Knesset Interior and Environmental Protection Committee. In 2017, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed him coalition chairman in place of David Bitan.[5]

Amsalem stood at number 18 on the Likud list for the April 2019 election to the 21st Knesset and at number 20 for the September election to the 22nd Knesset.[7] He stood at number 19 for the March 2020 election to the 23rd Knesset, in which Likud won 36 seats.[8] In July 2019, while serving as coalition chairman, Netanyahu appointed him communications minister to replace Ayoub Kara. Amsalem called the appointment a "great privilege."[3]

When the 35th government was sworn in on 17 May 2020, it had 36 cabinet ministers and 16 deputy ministers and was described as the largest government in Israel's history at that time. Amsalem served as minister responsible for liaison between the cabinet and the Knesset.[9] For the November 2022 election to the 25th Knesset, Israel's fifth election in three years, he stood fifth on the Likud list; Likud won 32 seats.[10]

In March 2023, the Knesset approved Amsalem's appointment as an additional minister within the Justice Ministry by 37 votes to 25. His responsibilities included several licensing and professional-regulation bodies, the government unit coordinating the fight against racism, and the department translating international conventions. He also became minister for Regional Cooperation, minister linking the government and Knesset, and the minister responsible for the Government Companies Authority.[4] That month, he resigned his Knesset seat under the Norwegian Law while remaining a minister.[11] Sources from June and August 2026 continued to identify him with the regional-cooperation, Justice Ministry, government-Knesset liaison, and Government Companies Authority portfolios.[12][13]

Amsalem has been a prominent critic of the Supreme Court and an advocate of restructuring Israel's judicial system. He proposed placing judicial appointments fully under government control and accused the court of discriminating against Israelis of Mizrahi Jewish descent.[14] In 2023, he drafted the "Proposed Civil Service Law (Appointments) (Amendment—Appointment of Legal Advisors of Ministries, the Attorney General and the State Attorney)," aimed at changing the role of ministerial legal advisers. Proponents argued that advisers' ability to reject initiatives they considered legally or constitutionally unacceptable could cause disputes and impede ministries' work.[15]

During his first Knesset term, Amsalem proposed what became known as the "French Law." A 2017 Jerusalem Post opinion article described it as barring investigations and indictments of serving prime ministers except for especially serious charges while limiting a prime minister's tenure to eight years. The article reported that Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit called the proposal "a serious blow to the rule of law."[16] In September 2023, Amsalem defended the wider judicial overhaul in the Knesset, disagreed with Netanyahu's effort to distance himself from parts of it, and characterized the reform as good and necessary.[17]

A 2022 Washington Institute analysis reported that Amsalem promised legislation against the political left that he said would leave it unable to recover for 20 years. It also quoted him saying, "In order to control, we will delete the word ‘justice.’ It doesn't exist anymore," and describing Netanyahu as "an emissary from God" and "the most important Jewish leader in 100 to 150 years."[2]

In June 2026, as minister responsible for the Government Companies Authority, Amsalem announced plans to bring a proposal to the Knesset Finance Committee to sell up to half of the state's holdings in Bank Yahav. He estimated proceeds of several billion shekels and argued that privatization would strengthen banking competition, improve public service, and benefit state employees.[13]

In 2003, Amsalem was arrested on suspicion of forging Likud membership forms to inflate the party's membership rolls. Police recommended prosecution for fraud, forgery, and false registration in corporate documents, but prosecutors closed the case for lack of evidence. A separate 2010 investigation examined suspicions of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust connected to the Holyland project and his municipal position; that file was also closed for lack of evidence. Amsalem denied wrongdoing in both matters.[5]

In February 2022, Amsalem attacked Supreme Court justices from the Knesset podium and alleged that then-Chief Justice Esther Hayut could not tolerate people with surnames such as Amsalem and Makhlouf. Hayut rejected the allegation in a public letter, saying she had grown up among families with those surnames and that the accusation was far from the truth. She said that she and Amsalem, having reached prominent public positions, had an obligation to promote unity rather than division.[18]

In a 2021 Twitter audio discussion, Amsalem described what he called a "crazy, Bolshevik and anti-Zionist gang" as having taken over the country and criticized government legal advisers. Some reports represented him as calling for left-wing people to be placed in pens, but Ynet clarified that the quoted passage referred to legal advisers as "wolves" and noted that other outlets apologized for the alternative attribution. Amsalem said his remarks had been taken out of context.[19]

During the September 2023 Knesset session, Amsalem compared opponents of the judicial overhaul to South Africa's apartheid-era rulers, an analogy reported as a contentious political intervention.[17]

Former Jerusalem Municipality officials alleged that Amsalem blurred political activity and professional duties and that some decisions raised questions about proper procedure. Former city director-general Yair Maayan described him as personally honest but said he had a strong impulse to help friends, including people who did not need assistance. Amsalem rejected the allegations as rumors and politically motivated claims.[5]

Amsalem's wife, Rozi, died of cancer in 2009, leaving him to raise their two children. He later proposed eliminating value-added tax on life-saving medicines, calling the proposal the "Rozi Law" and describing it as her legacy. The bill did not pass, but the state subsequently agreed to help subsidize discounts on life-saving oncology medicines.[5]

In June 2026, Amsalem's spokesperson announced that he had suffered a heart attack and had been discharged from Shaare Zedek Medical Center in good condition. His office said that he continued managing his ministry's activities from home, and Amsalem subsequently said he had returned to work.[11]