Who they are
Yoav Ben Tzur is a Shas member of the Knesset who has chaired the party’s Knesset faction and run the labour ministry. He was born in Kfar Saba in 1958 to Shalom and Mazal Saada Ben Tzur, who had come to Israel from Yemen in the late 1940s. He studied at the Or Yisrael yeshiva in Petah Tikva, served in the Nahal Brigade as a soldier-teacher and then as an officer, and took a first degree and a master’s in public and business administration.
He began in the religious public sector, running immigrant absorption in the north for the Religions Ministry in the late eighties. For a decade he was director-general of the state company HaMeshakem, and he took charge of the Jerusalem religious council against the decision of HaMeshakem’s board. He then ran the Maayan HaChinuch HaTorani school network. He reached the Knesset in June 2014 when Ariel Atias stepped down, went on to chair the Shas faction, and has been deputy interior minister and acting health minister.
A 2006 audit found his pay at HaMeshakem had exceeded the ceiling for the head of a state company, and a state comptroller’s report two years later set out conflicts of interest and the favouring of associates. He was arrested in December 2007 on suspicion of bribery and fraud, and the prosecution closed the case for lack of evidence.
Positions and record
Draft: A statutory exemption for full-time Torah students.
Workers: Benefits for traditional Mizrahi working families.
Loyalty: A firm vote for the Netanyahu bloc.
Where they stand
Holds the party line on every issue.
Judea & Samariaparty lineIt follows the Knesset and the government on Judea and Samaria rather than setting a line of its own, and opposes any division of Jerusalem.
Two states / withdrawalSovereignty / annexation
Gaza & Securityparty lineIt backed the hostage agreement, holding that no commandment matters more than saving the lives of hostages.
Deal & disengagementFull military control
Haredi Enlistmentparty lineTorah study is service. A law settling the status of yeshiva students is its one condition for joining a government, and it left the government in 2025 when none came.
Universal draftPreserve exemptions
Judiciaryparty lineIt does not recognise the Supreme Court's authority over the party, and would bar the court from reviewing the appointment of ministers.
Court can strike lawsKnesset can override
Economyparty lineAgainst globalisation and the privatisation of welfare: the minimum wage raised by a quarter, manpower agencies abolished, and old-age pensions at a third of the average wage.
Social spendingFree market
Educationparty lineIt fights to keep its own network independent, refusing outside control of what it teaches and what it is paid, and Deri calls the struggle a holy war.
State runs the schoolsParents and communities
Religion & Stateparty lineThe religious status quo and a stronger rabbinate, with kashrut returned to the Chief Rabbinate, while the state also supplies other faiths their religious needs.
Civil / pluralistReligious authority
Nation & Citizenshipparty lineA Jewish state and the ingathering of the exiles, and it asked in coalition talks for the grandchild clause of the Law of Return to be abolished.
Equal citizenshipJewish national state
