Yitzhak Kroizer

Kroizer was born on September 7, 1985, and grew up in Mitzpe Yeriho before moving with his family to Moshav Natur in the Golan Heights.[1][7] His father, Rabbi Yehuda Kroizer, is the rabbi of Mitzpe Yeriho and head of Yeshivat Haraayon Hayehudi, also known as the Jewish Idea yeshiva.[7][8] The yeshiva was founded by Meir Kahane, and Itamar Ben-Gvir studied there.[8]

A 2019 candidate profile described Kroizer as married with three children and employed as a project manager at a large construction company in northern Israel.[1] His interests included hiking and horseback riding.[1] Before entering parliament, he volunteered with HaShomer HaChadash, through which he became acquainted with economic and agricultural crime.[7]

Kroizer served for four and a half years as a combat soldier and participated in the Second Lebanon War.[1] In a 2026 interview, he said that his regular and career service included the Nahal Reconnaissance Unit and that he later held career positions in Sayeret Matkal.[9] He lost two brothers in a fatal road accident.[9]

Kroizer occupied fifteenth place on the Religious Zionism joint list for the 2022 election; the list received 516,146 votes, or 10.83 percent, and won fourteen seats.[3] Ben-Gvir recruited him as a representative of farmers.[7] He entered the Knesset on January 1, 2023, under the Norwegian Law, following Otzma Yehudit member Amichai Eliyahu's appointment as heritage minister.[2][10] The law permits ministers and deputy ministers from large factions to resign their parliamentary seats, allowing other candidates from their lists to enter the Knesset.[10]

In July 2023, the Knesset elected Kroizer as its second representative on the Judicial Selection Committee, alongside Yesh Atid member Karine Elharrar.[5] The committee selects judges at all levels of Israel's court system, and its composition was a contentious element of the government's proposed judicial reforms.[5] Before his election, Kroizer said he wanted judges with a Zionist and Jewish worldview while assessing candidates individually.[7] He also said that judges who accepted Israel's values, national identity, and character were fit to serve.[7]

Kroizer and fellow Otzma Yehudit lawmaker Almog Cohen sponsored legislation establishing the collection of protection money as a distinct offense, rather than addressing it only through offenses such as extortion.[4] Kroizer argued that the law needed to encompass implied intimidation and demands for payment for services that were not actually provided.[4] The bill passed its second and third readings in July 2023, broadening the offense's definition, setting a minimum three-year prison sentence and a maximum of nine years, and allowing civil forfeiture of proceeds.[4]

His subsequent work on organized crime included proposals to require suspects to justify their assets, rather than placing the burden on victims to demonstrate that they were being targeted.[2] In a November 2025 interview, he advocated financial penalties rather than prison terms as a means of combating such crime.[2] He also supported marking reservists' weapons and a more aggressive response to intruders near military training camps and bases, expressing concern that weapons stolen from IDF bases were reaching organized criminals.[2]

Kroizer worked with lawmakers from coalition and opposition parties on legislation providing hostages held in Gaza with continued monthly payments from the National Insurance Institute.[2] The measure was intended to prevent financial penalties for hostages and reduce the burden on their employers.[2] He said another law provided hostages and their families with lifelong emotional, medical, and financial support, and described further work addressing deceased hostages, widows, divorcees, and orphans.[2]

In July 2025, Kroizer took over the chairmanship of the Knesset Interior Committee.[6] Its responsibilities included discussions of rehabilitation and urban renewal in areas damaged during the war.[6]

For the 2026 election, Kroizer was placed sixth on the Otzma Yehudit candidate list.[11][12] The party received 326,624 votes, or 5.74 percent, and won seven seats; he was listed among its successful candidates.[11]

Kroizer has described his outlook as Jewish and Zionist, supporting democratic government and full rights for minorities and other citizens.[7] He has said that he does not define himself as a Kahanist.[7] His party, Otzma Yehudit, was originally formed as Otzma LeYisrael in 2012 by Aryeh Eldad and Michael Ben-Ari after their split from the National Union.[13] It gained a parliamentary foothold through an electoral combination with Religious Zionism in 2021, and its strength in the 2022 election led to Ben-Gvir's appointment as national security minister.[11]

Kroizer describes himself as an advocate of peace through strength, arguing that military presence, sovereignty, and the expansion of Jewish communities provide the reliable foundations for security.[2] He has cited Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000 as a warning, arguing that Hezbollah subsequently became a major threat.[2] As a resident of northern Israel, he said he felt safer knowing that Hezbollah weapons and positions were no longer directed at northern communities.[2]

On Gaza, Kroizer argued that the 2005 disengagement enabled the territory to become a terror pseudo-state and that delaying military entry carried a high cost.[2] He said Ben-Gvir had advocated entering Gaza before October 7 to protect southern communities, but that this approach had been set aside.[2] His proposed policies included sovereignty, military control, settlement expansion, and a Gazan emigration program.[2] Summarizing his approach to armed adversaries, he said: “We hold a very clear worldview: A dead terrorist does not resume terror activities.”[2]

On October 22, as recounted in his November 2025 interview, Kroizer voted for the preliminary reading of a bill applying Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria.[2] He argued that Jewish communities and military presence there helped secure central Israel, described sovereignty as a just and Zionist measure, and said voters had elected a coalition supporting that policy.[2]

Kroizer opposed the November 2023 hostage deal, saying the decision was difficult because Israelis wanted the hostages returned.[14] He argued that the agreement could leave members of the same family in captivity while placing soldiers at risk during a ceasefire.[14] He called for the release of all hostages and continued military action against Hamas, describing a deal that did not accomplish both objectives as a mistake.[14]

His work on agricultural crime was accompanied by an argument that damage to agricultural fields in the circumstances he described should be treated as terrorism, not simply ordinary crime.[2] He maintained that perpetrators sought not only financial gain but also to drive Jews from the land.[2]

Kroizer has described a memorial initiative honoring four people, including his brother Captain Shlomo Kroizer.[9] Its activities include study sites, an annual race involving soldiers, a lookout point, and a charitable project assisting lone soldiers.[9] He said the charitable work expanded to the Golan, Mitzpe Yeriho, and Jerusalem.[9]

The Center for Israel Education characterizes Otzma Yehudit as a far-right party ideologically associated with the outlawed Kach party; Kroizer has rejected the Kahanist label for himself.[7][11] His protection-money legislation also drew criticism: public-policy expert Dan Gefen argued that its mandatory minimum sentence could restrict judicial discretion and produce unintended results.[4]

In October 2024, the IDF ended Kroizer's reserve service after a photograph circulated showing graffiti reading “MK Kroizer’s office” on a house in Lebanon.[15] He had served in southern Lebanon with Reconnaissance Unit 6228 of the Nahal-veterans' Alon Brigade and said he had completed more than 100 reserve days in the previous year.[15] In a later account, he described the photograph as a soldiers' joke that was not supposed to be published and said his commander returned him to the unit after concluding that he had not leaked it.[9]

In March 2026, Kroizer defended security personnel after Border Police officers killed a Palestinian couple and their two young children in Tammun; the officers said their car had sped toward them, and an investigation was opened.[16] In the Knesset, he said there were “no innocent civilians” or “innocent children” in Jenin and that he felt no mercy for his enemies.[16] Hadash-Ta'al leader Ayman Odeh filed an Ethics Committee complaint, calling the remarks dehumanizing and incitement and requesting sanctions.[16]

On Jerusalem Day in May 2026, Kroizer visited the Temple Mount with his children and father and prostrated himself facing the Dome of the Rock.[17] In a Facebook post announcing the visit, he wrote: “The time has come to get rid of all the mosques and work to construct the Temple!”[17]

Police investigated Kroizer over an October 2026 confrontation in Mitzpe Yeriho in which three officers were injured and a suspect escaped.[18] He was due to be questioned under caution on suspicion of involvement in assaulting officers, but denied assaulting police, said he had tried to calm the situation, and alleged unreasonable force and political persecution.[18] He also filed a complaint against the officers; the report described allegations and an investigation, not a finding of guilt.[18]