Who they are
Amir Ohana is the speaker of the Knesset and a criminal lawyer by profession, the first openly gay Israeli to hold ministerial office or the speaker’s chair. He was born in Beersheba in 1976 to Esther and Meir Shimon Ohana, who came to Israel from Morocco in the 1950s. He served in the Military Police as a road accident investigator and commanded its base at Eilat and the Arava, and is a major in the reserves. He spent six years in the Shin Bet’s tracking operations room while studying law at the College of Management, and practised criminal law for a decade.
Ohana co-founded Gaava BaLikud, the party’s LGBT caucus, in 2011 and has chaired it since December 2014; in 2013 he amended the Likud constitution to bar discrimination by sexual orientation. In 2023 he became the first Knesset speaker to address a parliament in an Arab country, in Morocco.
As public security minister he agreed in April 2021 not to cap attendance at Mount Meron for Lag BaOmer beyond the coronavirus limits then in force. On 30 April a crush at the site killed 45 men and boys and injured 102. A week later Ohana wrote: “I am responsible for everything connected to the bodies under my responsibility. I am responsible, but responsibility does not mean guilt.” In March 2024 the state commission of inquiry assigned him personal responsibility and recommended he not be made public security minister again.
Positions and record
Judiciary: Proposed a constitutional court to take over the High Court’s constitutional role in 2023. Opposes judicial annulment of Basic Laws; defended excluding the chief justice and attorney general from Trump’s Knesset speech in October 2025.
Security: Called in July 2017 for military prosecutors to seek the death penalty for the Halamish attacker.
Gaza: Told Newsmax on 14 August 2025 that defeating Hamas requires a military invasion of Gaza, and that withdrawal had failed to end attacks on Israel.
Society: Voted for civil marriage on 24 December 2025 and for adoption by same-sex couples and single people on 22 February 2023, against the coalition and Likud positions.
Where they stand
Breaks with the party line on 2 issues, marked below.