Final World Zionist Congress deal taps Doron Perez for president, Hagoel as chairman

The World Zionist Congress’s Vaad Hapoel (General Council) has ratified details of a power-sharing agreement over the World Zionist Organization and Jewish National Fund-KKL, clearing the way for WZO officials to begin their new five-year term after a dramatic weekslong negotiation process that included ultimately failed attempts to arrange a plush job for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son Yair.

The final agreement, signed Sunday, includes the creation of new departments — and new executive job titles — in the WZO, an expanded role for its president and an even distribution of portfolios between right-wing and left-wing coalition members. It keeps Yair Netanyahu and representatives of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party out of the coalition, and paves the way for the organization’s Constitution Committee to begin working on election reforms after last summer’s WZO voting was plagued by fraud.

Under the agreement, Rabbi Doron Perez, chairman of the religious Zionist World Mizrachi movement and father of Cpt. Daniel Perez, who was killed in the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, will serve as president of the WZO, replacing Tova Dorfman. That position, which is often seen as largely symbolic, will have its scope and budget expanded to allow him to oversee a number of diaspora projects.

As previously announced, the WZO chairman will be Yaakov Hagoel of Likud for the first 2.5 years of the five-year term, through Independence Day 2028, to be followed by a representative of the pluralistic/liberal bloc for the second half. That replacement will be chosen at a later date.

At KKL, which commands a budget of more than a billion dollars a year to be used for Jewish causes, a representative of the pluralistic/liberal bloc will serve as the chair for the first half of the term, followed by a representative of Likud for the second half. The first chairman is expected to be chosen at a KKL general meeting in the coming weeks.

Yizhar Hess will continue in his role as WZO vice chair for the entire term.

Under the agreement, the number of departments in the WZO will expand from 14 to 20, providing more jobs to allies of the different slates. The heads of these departments receive large salaries, on par with those of government ministers, along with other perks.

According to a WZO source, these positions were demanded primarily by right-wing parties and were granted by the liberal bloc as part of a compromise to keep Yair Netanyahu and Ben Gvir out of the coalition.

“Keeping them out was a top priority for the bloc, and they made difficult compromises for that in the negotiations,” the source said.

A constitutional amendment has been proposed to limit the number of departments within the WZO to 14 in the future, the source added.

The centrist Kol Israel faction will also not be part of the coalition, after its leader, JNF-KKL vice chair David Yaari, fell out of favor with other coalition members.

Leadership appointments at the WZO don’t usually get so much attention, but a series of controversial events in recent weeks brought them to the forefront. Last month, at the World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem, a previous leadership agreement was torn up at the last minute when it was revealed that Likud minister and Netanyahu loyalist Miki Zohar had snuck in a cushy job for Yair Netanyahu.

After the new power-sharing agreement was drafted the next week, a separate bombshell disrupted the process as Opposition Leader Yair Lapid announced that his Yesh Atid party would no longer take part in any of the negotiations,  even as he had become a major power broker within the WZO.

After seeing the extent of internal corruption within the institutional appointments, decrying a system steeped in “a culture of corruption and political appointments,”  Lapid said he had “reached the conclusion that they can’t be fixed — they need to be shut down.”

Elections for the World Zionist Congress this summer were marred by numerous cases of alleged election fraud, with six slates accused of boosting their numbers with suspicious credit cards or phony contact details. Some of those parties received financial penalties, but none lost any mandates in punishment, despite the recommendations of the Area Election Committee, which oversaw the election.