Ya'akov Dov "Ketzele" Katz () (born 29 September 1951) is an Israeli politician. He led the National Union party from 2008 to 2012, for whom he was a member of the

Knesset The Knesset ( , ) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Israel. The Knesset passes all laws, elects the President of Israel, president and Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister, approves the Cabinet of Israel, cabinet, and supe ...

, and is also the executive director of

Beit El Beit El or Beth El () is an Israeli settlement and local council (Israel), local council located in the Binyamin Region of the West Bank. The Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox Jewish town was settled in 1977–78 by the ultranationalist group Gush Emu ...

yeshiva A yeshiva (; ; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are studied in parallel. The stu ...

Center Institutions and

Arutz Sheva ''Arutz Sheva'' (), also known in English as ''Israel National News'', is an Israeli media network identifying with religious Zionism. It offers online news articles in Hebrew language, Hebrew, English language, English, and Russian language, R ...

. He is a

settler A settler or a colonist is a person who establishes or joins a permanent presence that is separate to existing communities. The entity that a settler establishes is a Human settlement, settlement. A settler is called a pioneer if they are among ...

leader.

Biography

Ya'akov ("Ketzele") Katz was born in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

. He is a fifth-generation Israeli through his mother, while his father was an immigrant from

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

who came to

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

in the 1930s. Katz graduated from the

Bnei Akiva Bnei Akiva (, , "Children of Akiva") is the largest religious Zionist youth movement in the world, with over 125,000 members in 42 countries. It was first established in Mandatory Palestine in 1929, advocating the values of Torah and labor. Bne ...

Yeshiva A yeshiva (; ; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are studied in parallel. The stu ...

High School "Kfar Haroeh", and went on to study in Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav in Jerusalem. In 1970, he enlisted in the IDF and volunteered to serve in

Sayeret Special forces units in the Israel Defense Forces encompass a broad definition of specialist units. Such units are usually a regiment or a battalion in strength. Sayeret (, pl.: ''sayarot''), or ''reconnaissance'' units in the Israel Defense F ...

Shaked. He served under then OC Southern Command General

Ariel Sharon Ariel Sharon ( ; also known by his diminutive Arik, ; 26 February 192811 January 2014) was an Israeli general and politician who served as the prime minister of Israel from March 2001 until April 2006. Born in Kfar Malal in Mandatory Palestin ...

in the 1971 campaign in Gaza. In 1972, he completed his officers' course with distinction, and commanded his own commando unit in Sayeret Shaked. In the

Yom Kippur War The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was fought from 6 to 25 October 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states led by Egypt and S ...

in 1973, Katz served in a group of twelve reservists under the command of Amatzia Chen who carried out operations within the division of

A war story, and its lessons
27 September 2018. On the eighth day of the war, the force set out to locate Egyptian forces that had landed in helicopters in the deployment area to cross the

Suez Canal The Suez Canal (; , ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, Indo-Mediterranean, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest ...

. Katz suffered a serious injury to his left thigh as a result of the impact of an RPG rocket on his APC, and was severely wounded. It was during that period that he met his future wife Tami, a sociology student at

Bar-Ilan University Bar-Ilan University (BIU, , ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic university institution. It has 20,000 ...

, who had volunteered to work in

Beilinson Hospital Rabin Medical Center () is a large general hospital located in Petah Tikva, Israel. It is owned and operated by Clalit Health Services, Israel's largest health maintenance organization. In January 1996, Beilinson Hospital and Hasharon Hospital were ...

helping nurse the worst wounded. Akiva Margaliot released a CD called "Aseh" containing songs with musical arrangements composed by Katz. Katz is married with seven children.

Settler leader

After six months in hospital, he returned on crutches to study four more years in Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav under Rabbi

Tzvi Yehuda Kook Zvi Yehuda Kook (, 23 April 1891 – 9 March 1982) was an ultranationalist Orthodox rabbi. He was the son of Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of British Mandatory Palestine. Both father and son are credited with developing K ...

and Mazkir Bnei Akiva Shlomo Aviner. In 1977, he joined the group that established the

settlement Settlement may refer to: *Human settlement, a community where people live *Settlement (structural), downward movement of a structure's foundation *Settlement (finance), where securities are delivered against payment of money *Settlement (litigatio ...

in the

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

. In 1978, Katz, together with his Rabbi Zalman Baruch Melamed, split with the Beit El group and founded a new settlement which was called ''Beit El B''. Katz was one of the original members of the

Gush Emunim Gush Emunim (, lit. "Bloc of the Faithful") was an Israeli ultranationalist religious Zionist Orthodox Jewish right-wing fundamentalist activist movement committed to establishing Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and the Golan ...

movement. He and his family were among the first ten families to move to Beit El.Katz served as an assistant to

when Sharon was Housing and Development Minister. Katz was involved in the absorption of

olim ''Aliyah'' (, ; ''ʿălīyyā'', ) is the immigration of Jews from the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel or the Palestine region, which is today chiefly represented by the State of Israel. Traditionally described ...

from the former

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, and was responsible for building more than 35,000 housing units in

East Jerusalem East Jerusalem (, ; , ) is the portion of Jerusalem that was Jordanian annexation of the West Bank, held by Jordan after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, as opposed to West Jerusalem, which was held by Israel. Captured and occupied in 1967, th ...

, the

, and the

Golan Heights The Golan Heights, or simply the Golan, is a basaltic plateau at the southwest corner of Syria. It is bordered by the Yarmouk River in the south, the Sea of Galilee and Hula Valley in the west, the Anti-Lebanon mountains with Mount Hermon in t ...

. These houses doubled the Jewish population beyond the Green Line. Yaakov Katz founded "

Jewish Population Stats," "a report sponsored by " Bet El Institutions," a prominent

organization that has ties to

Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

's closest Mideast advisers", according to ''

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...

''. Y. Katz takes a stand against the a

two-state solution The two-state solution is a proposed approach to resolving the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, by creating two states on the territory of the former Mandatory Palestine. It is often contrasted with the one-state solution, which is the esta ...

(in 2018).

Pedagogic and media career

Katz founded the Beit-El Yeshiva Center, an educational center comprising myriad institutions with over 1,200 students: the Beit El Yeshiva and Kollel, Teachers' College, Har Brakha Hesder Yeshiva, Bnei Tzvi Yeshiva High School, Ra'aya Academy for Young Women (high school), Beit El Pre-Military Academy, as well as Arutz Sheva. In 1987, Katz bought an oceangoing vessel upon which to set up a radio station,

(Channel 7), as an alternative station with a national religious orientation. The station never received a license to broadcast. After the station was shut down in 2002, he founded the weekly Israeli newspaper BeSheva. In 2003, he was convicted of operating an illegal radio station, and on two counts of perjury for having lied about the location of the broadcasts. In 2006, President

Moshe Katsav Moshe Katsav (; born Musa Qassab; 5 December 1945) is an Israeli former politician and was the president of Israel from 2000 to 2007. He was also a leading Likud member of the Israeli Knesset and a minister in its Cabinet of Israel, cabinet. He ...

pardoned him.

Political career

In December 2008, Katz became chairman of the National Union alliance. In the 2009 elections, the party won four seats, and Katz entered the Knesset. In a March 2010 proposal to curb

illegal immigration Illegal immigration is the migration of people into a country in violation of that country's immigration laws, or the continuous residence in a country without the legal right to do so. Illegal immigration tends to be financially upward, wi ...

and the increase of illegal work aliens, Katz has suggested that a "special town" be created in southern Israel that would be "less convenient and glamorous" then the currently attractive city of

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

. He was the first MK to propose a

Yom HaAliyah Yom HaAliyah, or Aliyah Day (), is an Israeli national holiday celebrated annually on the tenth of the Jewish calendar, Hebrew month of Nisan to commemorate the Jews, Jewish people entering the Land of Israel which the Hebrew Bible says happene ...

. It would later be passed as law and established as the fifth Israeli Secular Israeli holiday. Katz lost his seat in the

2013 Israeli legislative election Early legislative elections were held in Israel on 22 January 2013 to elect the 120 members of the nineteenth Knesset. Public debate over the Tal Law had nearly led to early elections in 2012, but they were aborted at the last moment after Kadi ...

References

External links

*
Exclusive interview with Eretz Yisrael Shelanu
{{DEFAULTSORT:Katz, Ya'akov (politician born 1951) 1951 births Living people Members of the Knesset with disabilities Politicians from Jerusalem Members of the 18th Knesset (2009–2013) Israeli people of the Yom Kippur War Israeli people of Polish-Jewish descent Israeli Orthodox Jews National Union (Israel) politicians Israeli settlers Religious Zionist Party leaders Mercaz HaRav alumni Jewish Israeli politicians Yeshivat Kfar HaRoeh alumni