Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael, KKL, has increased its workforce by nearly 30% in five years, from 953 employees in 2021 to 1,233 today. Over the same period, its fixed expenses rose 44%, from 444 million shekels in 2021 to 640 million shekels in the 2026 budget recently approved, even as the organization’s main income source, land sales through the Israel Land Authority, sharply declined.
KKL received 6.3 billion shekels from the Israel Land Authority in 2022, about 5.4 billion in 2023, 4 billion in 2024 and just 2.4 billion in 2025, with this year expected to be similar. An internal review years ago had recommended the opposite approach, cutting staff, including closing the Land Development Administration and dismissing 300 of about 920 workers. But then chairman Danny Atar backed away from the cuts and signed a new collective agreement with union chief Israel Goldstein, a Likud activist who has been credited with recruiting many KKL employees into the party.
The political balance at KKL shifted after a coalition deal led by Minister Miki Zohar ended two decades of Labor control. Abraham Duvdevani of the World Mizrachi movement chaired the body until 2022, then was replaced by Yifat Ovadia-Luski of Likud. Under her leadership, staff continued to grow, including 88 new workers in the 2023 budget and another 133 from 2023 through 2025, while KKL went nearly three years without a permanent CEO.
A new chairman, Eyal Oustrinski, took office in January and told Calcalist he intends to stop the trend. He said he was first asked to approve 150 new posts, but limited the increase and set a principle that KKL’s fixed spending should decline in coming years and always remain below its operating budget. The Land Development Administration, which was supposed to be trimmed a decade ago, grew from 624 workers in 2021 to 802 in the 2026 budget.
KKL, which controls 2.35 million dunams in Israel, relies on revenue from marketing its lands through the Israel Land Authority and is not supervised by the Finance Ministry. Its 37-member board is politically appointed, giving the body unusual flexibility and political influence. KKL said 2026 is the first year in five years in which headcount growth has stopped and fixed costs have been reduced, while Ovadia-Luski said the chairman does not manage staffing. Goldstein said he does not determine hiring and warned that workers would pay if revenues fall. A new CEO, Ilan Shohat, was chosen at the end of April after the search committee was restarted.
