Who they are
Yinon Azoulay is a Shas member of the Knesset and chairman of the party’s faction. He trained as a medic and ran the Lachish branch of United Hatzalah, the volunteer emergency service, before he went into politics.
He was born in Acre in 1979 to Pnina and David Azoulay. He did not serve in the army and volunteered instead for a year of national service. He settled in Ashdod, became one of the senior figures in the Shas branch there and stood on the party’s list for the city council in 2013, and he spent two years as a senior adviser to the minister Aryeh Deri.
He reached the Knesset when his father, the Shas MK David Azoulay, resigned on health grounds. It was only the second time in the Knesset’s history that a son had replaced his father, and his father died six months later. Azoulay chaired the Ethics Committee until July 2024 and has sat on the Knesset, Finance and Foreign Affairs and Defence committees. In November 2025 he joined the Shas team negotiating the conscription law and the status of yeshiva students, and Haredi demonstrators from the Jerusalem Faction picketed his home for several days, banged on his door and damaged his car.
Positions and record
Draft: Hardline on exemption; harsh critic of the High Court.
Judiciary: Backs the overhaul and curbing the attorney general.
Religion: Against Reform recognition at state religious sites.
Where they stand
Holds the party line on every issue.