Likud’s Haim Katz okayed as housing minister to replace UTJ’s Goldknopf

By Sam Sokol 14 September 2025, 2:12 pm

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Sam 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"

Tourism Minister Haim Katz attends a Knesset Finance Committee meeting, December 9, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)

In a potential sign that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not believe the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party will return to his ruling coalition, the government approves the appointment of Likud’s Haim Katz as permanent housing minister.

“I thank the prime minister for his trust, and the members of the government for their support,” says Katz in a statement announcing his appointment. “I will do my best to continue the momentum of construction and increase the supply of housing, while removing bureaucratic barriers and improving service to the citizens of Israel.”

Katz, who is also the tourism minister, was initially appointed to the position on an interim basis for a period of three months following the resignation of UTJ chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf from the post in June as part of an ongoing fight over military exemptions for yeshiva students. The rest of Goldknopf’s party followed him out of the government and left the coalition completely in July due to its failure to pass legislation exempting yeshiva students from military service.

UTJ was quickly followed by Shas, which, while quitting the government, remained part of the coalition.

Katz, alongside Justice Minister Yariv Levin, also took over Shas’s ministerial portfolios on an interim basis, highlighting the government’s hope that it will return once the conscription issue is resolved.

The Haredi parties have demanded the passage of legislation reestablishing yeshiva students’ military exemptions by the end of the current Knesset recess in October. Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth is currently working on drafting a bill regulating Haredi enlistment and exemptions.

Katz’s permanent appointment may signal that the prospect of a solution to the current political impasse, and UTJ’s return to government, is seen as increasingly unlikely by the coalition.