Dudi Amsalem

Amsalem was born in 1960 in an asbestos-hut transit camp in Jerusalem’s Kiryat Yovel neighborhood. His parents had immigrated from Morocco hoping to reach Jerusalem; after they were initially taken by bus to Beersheba, his father brought the family to Jerusalem, where an uncle lived. The family later moved to Sderot and then, when Amsalem was in third grade, to Kiryat Malachi.[1]

He studied at Bnei Akiva’s Or Etzion yeshiva and served in the Armored Corps. He later earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and business administration from Bar-Ilan University. Before entering the Knesset, he worked in economic departments at the National Insurance Institute and the Income Tax Authority, managed a community center in Musrara, and held management positions in Jerusalem Municipality’s Improvement of the City Department.[3]

Amsalem has described his wife Rozi’s illness as a turning point in his decision to enter politics. He said she was diagnosed with lung cancer in December 2008 and that he was quoted a monthly cost of about NIS 50,000 for a medicine that might extend her life. He recalled pursuing a discount for life-saving medicines outside the health basket and reaching an agreement he said would provide a 20% discount, involving government ministries, Friends for Medicine, and a pharmaceutical company.[1] Rozi died of cancer in 2009, and Amsalem raised their two children.[3]

Amsalem’s municipal career included more than two decades of work in Jerusalem Municipality. In 1993, after Ehud Olmert became mayor, he was selected in a competition to serve as deputy head of the Improvement of the City Department; about seven years later, he became its head. He left the municipality at the end of 2013, after periods of leave connected to political campaigns.[3]

Before entering the Knesset, he chaired Likud’s Jerusalem headquarters, represented the Jerusalem district, and was an outspoken opponent of Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat.[8] He was first elected to the Knesset in 2015, appearing 21st on the Likud list and marked as a first-time Knesset member.[9] In the 2019 elections he was listed 18th on Likud’s April slate and 20th on its September slate, and he served in the 22nd Knesset.[10] In the 2022 election he was fifth on the Likud list.[11]

In the Knesset, Amsalem chaired the Interior and Environmental Protection Committee. In a 2016 interview, he said that he had chaired nearly 350 committee discussions, about 150 of them on everyday or social issues. He cited work on summer-camp and water prices, disability regulations, and residents’ concerns about a proposed contractors’ waste site in northern Jerusalem. He also supported raising disability benefits to the minimum wage, while acknowledging the substantial public cost he estimated for such measures.[1]

Benjamin Netanyahu appointed Amsalem coalition chair in 2017 and communications minister in July 2019. His responsibilities later included the Government Companies Authority and Civil Service Commission, as well as a digital and cyber portfolio.[3] In May 2020, he became minister responsible for liaison between the government and the Knesset.[12][13] Netanyahu said the role would draw on Amsalem’s earlier service as coalition whip to help safeguard the stability of government work in relation to the Knesset. Amsalem was also assigned oversight of the Digital Israel initiative, the Government Information and Communications Technology Authority, and Israel’s cyber array.[13]

During negotiations to form a government in late 2022 and early 2023, Amsalem sought either the Justice Ministry or the Knesset speakership; Netanyahu gave those positions to other Likud figures. In February 2023, Likud announced that Amsalem would become a second minister within the Justice Ministry, minister of Regional Cooperation, and government–Knesset liaison.[14] Amsalem resigned his membership in the 25th Knesset in March 2023 under the Norwegian Law, allowing Avichay Boaron to enter in his place.[15] As of June 2026, he held the regional-cooperation and government–Knesset liaison posts and was a minister within the Justice Ministry; he had also previously served as communications minister and national digital minister.[2]

In June 2026, Amsalem experienced a mild cardiac event, underwent a successful catheterization at Shaare Zedek Medical Center, and was discharged home two days later. His office said he continued managing his ministry’s work, and Amsalem said he had returned to work.[2] For the election scheduled for October 27, 2026, he was placed 19th on the Likud list; this was a candidate-list placement, not an election result.[16]

As regional cooperation minister, Amsalem oversaw ministry activity that included annual ambassadors’ conferences from 2023 through 2026 and diplomatic and professional initiatives involving Azerbaijan, Greece, and Kazakhstan. He signed strategic memoranda with Kazakhstan concerning water resources and irrigation management and special education.[17]

Amsalem’s policy work has included proposals affecting the judiciary and government legal offices. He drafted a proposed amendment to the Civil Service Law concerning the appointment of ministry legal advisers, the attorney general, and the state attorney. The proposal was discussed in the context of making ministry legal advisers political appointees.[18] He also submitted a bill to place judicial appointments fully under government control.[14] In a 2024 interview, he said the judicial overhaul should continue and that it had been wrong to halt the legislation.[4]

He has also argued for greater representation of Mizrahi Jews in senior political positions. Amsalem was born to immigrants from Morocco and has been described as a senior Likud politician of Mizrahi, or Middle Eastern Jewish, descent. In February 2026, he said Netanyahu should appoint a Mizrahi politician to a senior ministerial role if Likud won the election, warning that otherwise the prime minister would be “spitting on our voters.”[5] In January 2023, after Netanyahu did not initially assign him one of the portfolios he sought, Amsalem accused the prime minister of racism and connected the decision to his Sephardic heritage. Netanyahu’s office rejected the allegation, calling the claim of ethnic preference within Likud “ridiculous.”[19]

In April 2024, Amsalem petitioned the High Court of Justice seeking action to draft Arab citizens of Israel into military service. The court rejected the petition without a hearing, citing procedural and evidentiary deficiencies, including that Amsalem had not sought responses from the officials before filing. He criticized the ruling, writing that it was “unthinkable that instead of being a country with a High Court we’re a High Court which has a country.”[20] In a 2024 interview, he said he would support only a single deal returning all hostages at once and opposed a partial deal. He described the October 7 events as a “tactical failure” and said they had no connection to the government; these were his political assessments.[4]

In 2025, Amsalem was listed among 15 ministers who signed a letter demanding application of full Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank by July 27. The signatory list was attributed to a July 2 post by Bezalel Smotrich.[7] Amsalem has also used forceful language in domestic political debate. In a July 2020 Knesset speech addressing demonstrators opposed to Netanyahu, he accused them of fueling violence and called them “hypocrites, crying like the Cossack who was robbed.”[21]

Amsalem’s public profile has combined municipal administration, party organization, and national executive service. His rise from Jerusalem municipal departments to the Knesset and cabinet was accompanied by responsibility for committee work, coalition coordination, communications, digital matters, regional cooperation, and government–Knesset relations.[3][15]

His personal experience with the cost of cancer treatment informed his advocacy concerning access to life-saving medicines. He promoted a bill to remove value-added tax from such medicines, which he called the “Rozi law”; the bill did not pass. Following the initiative, the state agreed to participate in subsidizing discounts on life-saving oncology medicines.[3] His committee work also addressed matters such as disability regulations, consumer prices, and local environmental concerns.[1]

Amsalem’s regional-cooperation portfolio involved diplomatic and administrative activity, including ministry conferences and agreements with Kazakhstan on water management and special education.[17] His national political record has also made him a visible participant in debates over judicial authority, ethnic representation, government appointments, and the relationship between the cabinet and the Knesset.[14][18]

Amsalem’s criticisms of the Supreme Court and his support for judicial reform have been contentious. He has alleged that the court discriminates against Sephardic Jews; then-chief justice Esther Hayut dismissed his claims as “poison.”[19] The disagreement over judicial reform also concerns proposals for government influence over judicial appointments and the roles of legal advisers.[14][18] Amsalem drafted a bill concerning appointments to senior legal posts, although the cited legal report does not provide further procedural details about its progress.[18]

His proposed appointments to government-company posts also prompted a dispute. In August 2023, Amsalem defended proposing personal acquaintances for senior roles, saying he preferred candidates he knew and respected. Government Companies Authority director Michal Rosenbaum disputed his approach and accused him of making illegitimate demands; Amsalem had sought her dismissal, while she denied his allegations against her. The dispute took place amid a reported freeze in appointments to government companies.[6]

Two investigations involving Amsalem were reported. He was arrested in 2003 in an investigation into suspected falsification of Likud membership forms; police recommended prosecution, but the case was closed for lack of evidence. In 2010, he was questioned under caution several times in connection with the Holyland project on suspicion of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust; that case was also closed for lack of evidence. Amsalem denied wrongdoing, said money he received from an associate was a repaid bridge loan, and disputed the allegations and investigators’ account.[3]

Allegations of misuse of municipal resources and irregular management were also reported from Amsalem’s Jerusalem Municipality career. Amsalem denied the allegations and characterized them as rumors or politically motivated claims.[3] These accounts concern allegations and investigations that did not result in prosecution in the cases described; they do not establish wrongdoing.