UTJ lawmaker takes over as housing minister following Goldknopf’s resignation last month

By Sam Sokol 2 July 2025, 6:48 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"

MK Yisrael Eichler attends a United Torah Judaism faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on October 28, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

United Torah Judaism MK Yisrael Eichler is set to take over the Housing Ministry from Tourism Minister Haim Katz, the Prime Minister’s Office announces.

Katz was appointed to head the ministry in June, following the resignation of Yitzchak Goldknopf, who quit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet as part of an ongoing fight over the military conscription of yeshiva students. Despite Goldknopf’s resignation, his party remained in the coalition, and he was replaced only on an interim basis.

Both Eichler and Goldknopf are part of UTJ’s Hasidic Agudat Yisrael faction.

“After Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf resigned from his position, Knesset members from Agudat Yisrael approached the prime minister with a request to appoint MK Yisrael Eichler to the position,” the PMO says in a statement.

“Due to the security situation at the time,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to appoint Katz in an acting capacity but now the premier “intends to uphold the coalition” and officially appoint Eichler on Monday following a Knesset vote, the PMO says, adding that “the door is open to [Goldknopf] to return to his position.”

“Upon MK Goldknopf’s return to office, MK Eichler will resign from his position and return to serve as chairman of the Knesset Labor and Welfare Committee,” the statement reads.