Smotrich Did Not Add the Jewish Home to His Party’s Central Committee
Nearly three years after the August 2023 merger agreement between Religious Zionism and the Jewish Home, a key clause was never implemented. Under that deal, Religious Zionism chairman Bezalel Smotrich and Jewish Home chair Hagit Moshe agreed that the party would absorb the Jewish Home, Moshe would join faction meetings and head the party’s municipal committee, and 80 Jewish Home central committee members would be integrated into Religious Zionism’s central committee.
According to the latest central committee list obtained by Srugim, Religious Zionism now has 163 members. The list includes all of the party’s sitting Knesset members, former Tkuma and National Union figures who remained with Religious Zionism, and local council representatives from the party. Missing from the list are Moshe, party director general Yigal Dinno, and a series of municipal politicians who ran under the Jewish Home banner, including Efrat local council head Dovi Shpeller, Ashkelon council member Amichai Siboni, and Pardes Hanna-Karkur council member Nehemia Mansour.
Srugim reported that Moshe submitted a list of about 80 Jewish Home central committee members, though some names may have duplicated people already in Religious Zionism’s ranks. Party officials rejected nearly half of them, citing reasons such as association with Naftali Bennett, being too young, or being too liberal. In the end, none of the Jewish Home names were added to Religious Zionism’s central committee.
The party’s formal constitution says the central committee elects the party’s 10th slot on the Knesset list. But the committee has since approved Smotrich’s request to cancel primaries, meaning it is likely to have a much larger role in choosing the slate, with at least one realistic Knesset seat, and possibly two, after the chairman’s own reserved spots. Adding 80 Jewish Home members would make up about a third of the new committee, potentially giving them major influence, which may explain the delay as the party seeks to select the “right people” for the Knesset list. Neither Religious Zionism nor the Jewish Home responded to requests for comment.
