Amichai Eliyahu
Otzma Yehudit ·

Amichai Eliyahu

עמיחי אליהו

Heritage Minister

#4 of 7 projected seats
Safe seat
years in public service
4
issues off the party line
0 of 8

Who they are

Amichai Eliyahu is heritage minister and a member of the Knesset for Otzma Yehudit, and founded the Community Rabbis Union. He was born in Jerusalem in 1979, the eldest son of Tova Eliyahu and Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu and a grandson of Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, and grew up in Shlomi and in Safed. He was educated at the Netivot Yosef yeshiva high school and the Safed hesder yeshiva, served as a rifleman in Battalion 202 of the Paratroopers Brigade, and fought in the Second Lebanon War as a reservist.

Eliyahu taught at the Hispin yeshiva high school for four years, founded a Torah nucleus in Migdal HaEmek in 2013, and the following year set up the Community Rabbis Union, which he headed until he entered the Knesset. In 2016 he founded Tzav Ehad, which works on the position of observant soldiers and obtained separate lavatories on bases and changes to the shaving order. He stood unsuccessfully on the National Union-Tkuma list in 2019. Hours after being sworn in as heritage minister he gave up his Knesset seat under the Norwegian Law to his party colleague Yitzhak Kroizer.

In November 2023, asked in a radio interview whether he meant dropping an atomic bomb on Gaza, he answered that this was one way, and Netanyahu suspended him from cabinet meetings. He said afterwards that the remark had plainly been metaphorical.

Positions and record

Gaza: Maximalist war aims; backs renewed Jewish settlement in Gaza.

Heritage: State funding for Jewish heritage sites, including in the West Bank.

Settlement: Expansion across Judea and Samaria.

Where they stand

Holds the party line on every issue.

Judea & Samariaparty lineApply Israeli sovereignty across Judea and Samaria
Two states / withdrawalSovereignty / annexation
Gaza & Securityparty lineResettle Gaza; encourage emigration, no deals with Hamas
Deal & disengagementFull military control
Haredi Enlistmentparty lineOpposes coercing Haredim to enlist
Universal draftPreserve exemptions
Judiciaryparty lineFire the Attorney General; keep courts out of politics
Court can strike lawsKnesset can override
Economyparty lineNo economic doctrine; targeted spending and tax breaks
Social spendingFree market
Educationparty lineRuns on policing, gun rights and sovereignty, not school control
State runs the schoolsParents and communities
Religion & Stateparty lineJewish law in the courts, Orthodox-only conversion
Civil / pluralistReligious authority
Nation & Citizenshipparty lineHebrew only, and citizenship conditional on loyalty
Equal citizenshipJewish national state