From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, July 29, 2025
Likud MK accused of rape chairs his first Finance Committee hearing, with his formal appointment to job set to pass
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Likud MK Hanoch Milwidsky chairs his first meeting of the powerful Finance Committee even as lawmakers in the Knesset House Committee prepare to vote on his appointment. He leads the meeting as acting chair.
Opposition lawmakers have protested Milwidsky’s appointment — which must still be approved by the House Committee and Finance Committee — due to an ongoing police investigation against him on suspicion of rape and witness tampering.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party slams the coalition for its nomination of Milwidsky despite the allegations.
“The current discussion in the Knesset House Committee on the appointment of a rape suspect as chairman of the Finance Committee is one of the lowest and saddest moments in the history of the Knesset,” the party says in a statement. “For the current coalition, suspicion of rape is not a red line. How low.”
Independent opposition MK Orit Farkash-Hacohen tweets: “At the same time that a charged and fundamental discussion is taking place in the Knesset House Committee regarding whether it is appropriate to appoint someone under investigation for sexual offenses as the chair of the Finance Committee – the coalition… opens the Finance Committee for an urgent discussion, under the management of Milwidsky.”
Likud’s Ofir Katz, the chair of the House Committee which is set vote on Milwidsky’s appointment and the interim chair of the Knesset Finance Committee, used his authority to allow Milwidsky to run the meeting ahead of his appointment.
During the meeting chaired by Milwidsky, the Finance Committee approved tax benefits for 90 nonprofits, a move that Farkash-Hacohen says is “kosher but smells.”
Ahead of this afternoon’s vote on Milwidsky in the House Committee, The Democrats MK Naama Lazimi compares Milwidsky’s Likud party to a “criminal organization” while Yesh Atid MK Vladimir Beliak says he is “embarrassed by this committee,” which is making “a shameful appointment.”
Milwidsky has denied wrongdoing and cast the investigation against him as a witch hunt.
A confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Milwidsky was nominated for Finance Committee chair after United Torah Judaism, the party of previous chair MK Moshe Gafni, quit the coalition over its failure to codify the ultra-Orthodox community’s exemption from military service.
The Times of Israel Community.