Yoav Gallant
Yoav Gallant is an Israeli politician and former military officer who served as minister of defense between 2022 and 2024. Gallant was an officer in the Southern Command of the Israel Defense Forces, serving in the Israeli Navy. In January 2015 he entered politics, joining the new Kulanu party. After being elected to the Knesset he was appointed minister of construction. At the end of 2018 he joined Likud, shortly after which he became minister of Aliyah and Integration.
In 2020 he was appointed minister of education, and the following year became minister of defense. On 5 November 2024, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he had dismissed Gallant, effective 7 November, and sought to have Israel Katz replace him. Gallant subsequently resigned from the Knesset on 5 January 2025.
On 21 November 2024, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Gallant along with Netanyahu and three Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the Gaza war.
Biography
Yoav Gallant was born on 8 November 1958 in Jaffa to Polish Jewish immigrants. His mother, Fruma, was a Holocaust survivor who had been on the SS Exodus as a child. Along with other Exodus refugees, she was deported by the British to Hamburg, and arrived in Israel in 1948. She was a nurse by profession. His father, Michael, fought the Nazis as a partisan in the forests of Ukraine and Belarus, and also immigrated to Israel in 1948. He served in the Givati Brigade in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, including the Samson's Foxes unit, and was considered one of the finest snipers in the IDF. He participated in Operation Yoav, during which he was the first soldier to break into the fort at Iraq Suwaydan. He named his son for the operation. In Gallant's youth, the family moved to Givatayim, where he studied at David Kalai High School. He received a B.A. in business and finance management from the University of Haifa.Gallant lives in moshav Amikam. He is married to Claudine, a retired IDF Lieutenant Colonel. They have a son and two daughters.
In 2011, Gallant was tapped to succeed Gabi Ashkenazi as the Chief of General Staff by Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Although his appointment was approved by the government it was overturned due to allegations of building of an unauthorized access road to his home and planting an olive grove on public land outside the boundaries of his property.
Military career
Gallant began his military career in 1977 as a naval commando in Shayetet 13. In the 1980s, after six years of active service, he moved to Alaska and worked as a lumberjack. He then returned to the navy and served on a missile boat and again in Shayetet 13. In 1992, Gallant was earmarked by then-navy commander Ami Ayalon for the command of Shayetet 13, a position he was meant to take up in 1994. Gallant preferred not to study during the two remaining years, and instead moved into the ground forces and in 1993 took up command of the Menashe Territorial Brigade of the Judea and Samaria Division.After serving for three years as commander of Shayetet 13, Gallant moved up to command the Gaza Division. He also commanded the reserve 340th Armored Division, and in 2001 became the chief of staff of the GOC Army Headquarters. Gallant attained the rank of a major general when he became the military secretary of the prime minister in 2002.
In 2005, Gallant was appointed as commander of the Southern Command. During his tenure, Hamas launched the 25 June 2006 Gaza cross-border raid that resulted in the deaths of two IDF soldiers and the capture of a third, Gilad Shalit. The IDF then launched Operation Summer Rains, that resulted in a decrease of Hamas rocket-fire for some time but failed to free Shalit. Also during his tenure, the Israel Defense Forces embarked on Operation Cast Lead against Hamas in the Gaza Strip from December 2008 until January 2009, which again temporarily minimized Hamas rocket-fire but also again failed to find and deliver Shalit, who would be eventually exchanged in 2011 for 1,027 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel. Gallant commanded the operation and his role in the field and in what was at that time considered the success of the operation gained praise and helped him in the race to chief of staff. However, Gallant and the IDF were criticized for the implementation of the Dahiya doctrine of widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure in the Gaza War of 2008–09, with the Goldstone Report concluding that the Israeli strategy was "designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population".
Israeli NGO Yesh Gvul filed suit against Gallant's appointment as IDF chief of staff, claiming that his command role in Cast Lead confirmed him as a suspect in "grave violations of international law." Haaretz noted that Gallant lobbied against an investigation of Col. Ilan Malka, the IDF commander who approved the airstrike that killed 21 members of the al-Samouni clan during Cast Lead. Gallant's view was ignored as the military prosecutor general opened an investigation of the incident which was highlighted by the Goldstone Report as a "possible serious breach of international law".
Chief of Staff candidacy
On 22 August 2010 Minister of Defense Ehud Barak presented the candidacy of Gallant for the post of the IDF's twentieth chief of staff to the government. It was expected that he would receive the promotion. Gallant's appointment followed a controversy, where a forged document was leaked to Israel's Channel 2 purporting to detail plans by Gallant to smear rival candidate Benny Gantz.On 5 September 2010 the government approved the nomination of Gallant as the next chief of staff, with only Likud minister Michael Eitan objecting. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the incoming IDF chief had "proven his worth during his 33 years of military service at the IDF's frontlines," and that "He's proven himself to be a courageous fighter, an excellent officer, and a responsible and serious battle commander." The PM added that Gallant picked up on a legacy of "dedication and excellence" bequeathed by incumbent IDF chief Gabi Ashkenazi. The cabinet also approved Barak's proposal, according to which Gallant would serve for three years, giving the defense minister power to grant a fourth.
On 1 February 2011 Netanyahu and Barak canceled Gallant's appointment as Israel Defense Forces chief. The announcement came after months of scandal surrounding his appointment due to allegations that he had seized public lands near his home in Moshav Amikam. After conducting an investigation into the allegations, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein said that his findings "raise significant legal difficulties for the decision to appoint him." Weinstein said that it was up to the prime minister and defense minister to decide whether or not Gallant could take up the post. Earlier in the day, Weinstein notified Netanyahu that he could not defend Gallant's appointment as chief of staff due to legal impediments.
On 30 December 2012 the local planning committee administering land ownership issues and building licenses said that Gallant had built his home in the northern community of Amikam on 350m² of property accidentally listed as his, unaware that it was actually public land. The decision did not address two other issues still being investigated by the state comptroller and attorney general: the building of an unauthorized access road to his house and the planting of an olive grove that spilled over the boundaries of his property.
Political career
Kulanu
In January 2015 Gallant joined the new Kulanu party led by Moshe Kahlon. He was placed second on the party's list for the 2015 elections, and was elected to the Knesset as the party won ten seats. He was later appointed Minister of Construction in the new government..In January 2016 the New York Times published an op-ed by Gallant in which he described how important he believes it is for Jewish and Arab leaders to come together in promoting peace and equality in their shared country. As part of that effort, he and MK Ayman Odeh, leader of the Joint List alliance of Arab parties, together visited several Arab Israeli towns. "Together, we examined firsthand the challenges facing Arab Israeli communities so that we could bring about solutions," he noted.
Likud
On 31 December 2018, Gallant quit his post as Housing and Construction Minister to join Likud. A day later he was appointed Minister of Aliyah and Integration. He resigned from the Knesset and was replaced by the next candidate on the Kulanu list, Fentahun Seyoum on 2 January 2019.File:Reuven Rivlin and Yoav Galant in a conversation Israeli educators about distance learning, January 2021.jpg|thumb|left|Gallant and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin during the COVID-19 pandemic, 19 January 2021After the formation of the Thirty-fifth government of Israel Gallant was appointed minister of education.
On 17 January 2021, reacting to a planned speech by the director-general of B'Tselem Hagai El-Ad at the Hebrew Reali School, Gallant, serving as the minister of education, published a directive to the Education Ministry to forbid all organizations whose causes contradict the Ministry's vision of the country as democratic, Jewish and Zionist, from entering schools.
Specifically, Gallant wrote that any organization which cites Israel as an "apartheid state", shall be forbidden from entering education centers in Israel.
In 2021, as minister of education, Gallant opposed Weizmann Institute professor Oded Goldreich receiving the Israel Prize in mathematics, due to him co-signing a 2019 letter that called for the Bundestag not to pass legislation defining the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement as anti-Semitic. On 8 April 2021 Israel's Supreme Court of Justice ruled in favor of Gallant's petition so that Goldreich could not receive the prize and gave Gallant a month to further examine the issue. In March 2022 the High Court of Israel ruled that the 2021 prize had to be awarded to Prof. Goldreich.