‘Spitting on our voters’: Likud’s Amsalem says Netanyahu must tap Mizrahi MKs for senior roles

Regional Cooperation Minister David Amsalem, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, says the premier must appoint a Mizrahi politician to a senior ministerial role if he wins this year’s elections.

Amsalem, born to immigrants from Morocco, is one of the most senior Likud politicians of Mizrahi, or Middle Eastern Jewish, descent.

In an interview with the Ynet outlet, he is asked if Netanyahu should tap a “hardcore” Mizrahi politician from Israel’s periphery for a senior ministerial role following an election victory.

“It must be so,” Amsalem replies, saying that to do otherwise would be a swipe at the party’s base.

“If not, he’s spitting on our voters,” Amsalem says. “There’s no reason this can’t happen. We’re the majority. Likud relies on these people. It can’t be that a few Ashkenazim come to control and manage us.”

This is not the first time Amsalem has leveled this charge. He previously lashed out at Netanyahu in 2023 for snubbing Mizrahi politicians after he was initially denied a cabinet post in the current government.

Ashkenazi politicians have held the most senior government positions for most of Israel’s history, and there has never been a Mizrahi prime minister. Mizrahi politicians, however, have in the past held the most senior ministerial roles, including helming the Defense, Foreign and Finance Ministries.