Jerusalem, 14 September, 2025 (TPS-IL) — Israel’s government confirmed Haim Katz as permanent Minister of Construction and Housing on Sunday, giving the Likud lawmaker four Cabinet portfolios at once.
The 77-year-old Katz also holds the Cabinet’s Tourism, Health and Welfare portfolios.
The decision is viewed as a sign that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not expect the United Torah Judaism party to return to the governing coalition. UTJ’s leader, Rabbi Yitzhak Goldknopf resigned as housing minister in June and his party quit the coalition the following month in a dispute over military service exemptions for yeshiva students.
Katz was initially given the housing portfolio on an interim basis in July, but his permanent appointment underscores the government’s inability to resolve the draft issue or restore the coalition’s previous makeup.
This is not the first time Katz has juggled multiple ministries. Earlier this year, when the far-right Otzma Yehudit party briefly abandoned the coalition during a ceasefire in Gaza, he was temporarily assigned three more portfolios, including national security and heritage.
Opposition figures criticized the concentration of roles in Katz’s hands.
“Even the most diligent minister in the world cannot invest effort in four ministries at the same time,” opposition leader Yair Lapid wrote in January on X, formerly Twitter. “Either they’re unnecessary, or it’s blatant disrespect for these ministries.”
The issue of Haredi exemptions has become a central fault line within the coalition.
The military began making plans to draft yeshiva students after Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled in 2024 that exemptions for the Haredi community were illegal. Haredi men in Israel are generally exempt from mandatory military service if they study full-time in religious seminaries, known as yeshivot. The issue has long divided Israeli society and remains politically sensitive, especially during wartime. UTJ and the other Haredi party, Shas, insist on preserving these exemptions as a matter of religious principle and community identity.
Thousands of reservists have been mobilized for duty in early September as the army prepares for an offensive in gaza city, Hamas’ last stronghold.
Approximately 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 48 remaining hostages, about 20 are believed to be alive.
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