WZO nominations see shuffle, while Yair Netanyahu still out

Online voting for the heads of major Zionist institutions has been extended for another day, through Wednesday morning, after a new agreement was reached between the parties, World Zionist Organization sources say.

Yair Netanyahu, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s elder son, remains out of the picture after the surprise last-minute addition of his name to a list of WZO executives upended the nomination process last week. WZO leaders have made it clear that any effort to secure a cushy job for the younger Netanyahu will not be acceptable.

Under the latest 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 Hamas attack and whose body was held in Gaza for two years — will become either the president of the WZO or the chair of Keren Hayesod. He was previously set to become the WZO chair.

Current WZO chair Yaakov Hagoel will continue in that position for the first half of the five-year term. Two and a half years in, he would be replaced by a member of the Yesh Atid party.

Two members from World Likud will be added to the WZO executive in the future, but there is no way that Yair Netanyahu would be approved for that, a WZO source notes.

The arrangement for the chair of the Jewish National Fund-KKL will remain as previously agreed. Yesh Atid MK Meir Cohen would serve first, retiring from the Knesset after 12 years. He would be replaced in the middle of his term by a representative of the Likud party.