Bezalel Smotrich

In the build-up to the 2015 Knesset elections, he won second place on the Tkuma list, after party leader Uri Ariel. The party contested the elections as part of the Jewish Home, with Smotrich placed eighth on its list for the elections. He was elected to the Knesset as the party won eight seats. In 2018, he announced that he would challenge Uri Ariel for the leadership of the National Union faction. On 14 January 2019, he defeated Ariel in a landslide victory.

In June 2019, Smotrich campaigned for the Ministry of Justice, saying that he sought the portfolio to "restore the Torah justice system". Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu distanced himself from the comments, and appointed openly gay MK Amir Ohana to the post. According to Channel 13, Smotrich subsequently requested the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, but was not granted the position due to fears that he would strain ties between Israel and the Jewish diaspora.

In June 2019, while pushing to be appointed Justice minister (just after the previous Justice minister had been fired) Justice Smotrich stated "We want the justice portfolio because we want to restore the Torah justice system," and that the country should aspire to run itself as “in the days of King David."

In August 2019, Smotrich stated, “We [Orthodox Jews] all would want the State of Israel to be run according to the Torah and Jewish law, it’s just that we can’t because there are people who think differently from us and we have to get along with them.” The United Right (a political alliance of right-wing parties including The Jewish Home and Smotrich's Tkuma) referred to the negative reaction "media lynching", arguing that Smotrich "emphasized that he cannot and isn’t interested in forcing it on others." However, Smotrich had said "The government makes decisions that affect us and impedes our liberties every day so it is simply about what decisions are in the public interest enough to justify coercion... We too can force our needs on others, provided we are convinced ourselves of the validity of our demands."

In April 2018, Smotrich tweeted that Ahed Tamimi, a 17-year-old Palestinian serving an eight-month jail sentence for assaulting a soldier, incitement, and interfering with a soldier in the line of duty, "should have gotten a bullet, at least in the kneekap". Twitter responded by suspending his account for 12 hours and asking him to delete the tweet, saying that the tweet was "abusive" and could incite harassment. Smotrich refused to delete the tweet, saying that for Twitter, "freedom of speech is reserved for just for one side of the political map", and that he stood by his tweet.

In April 2016, Bezalel Smotrich tweeted that he supports segregation of Arab and Jewish women in hospital's maternity wards: "It is natural that my wife would not want to lay down next to someone who just gave birth to a baby that might want to murder her baby in another 20 years." The tweets were condemned by several Israeli politicians, including opposition leader Isaac Herzog and Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett.

In July 2016, Smotrich stated he was “not willing to recognize Reform conversions and their fake religion.” The comment came following the passing of a Knesset bill permitting local religious authorities to bar non-Orthodox from using public mikvahs for conversion ceremonies, which countered a Supreme Court ruling to the contrary.

In July 2015, Smotrich caused a controversy by declaring in a Knesset Interior meeting that developers in Israel should not have to sell homes to Arabs. The meeting took place following accusations that Galil Homes refused to sell homes to Arabs in Ma'alot, a northern Israeli town. Smotrich defended the developer, saying that, "Anyone who wants to protect the Jewish People and opposes mixed marriages is not a racist. Whoever wants to let Jews live a Jewish life without non-Jews is not a racist." He added that Jews are the ones deprived in Israel because "they don't get free land in the Negev", a reference to Bedouin. "I believe in God's words. I prefer that Jews make a living and wouldn't sell a house to Arabs."

Smotrich opposes gay marriage, and says that he wants to “promote the traditional family.” In 2006, Smotrich helped organize a "beast parade" in opposition to the Jerusalem gay pride parade. In 2015, he referred to homosexual people as "abnormal", stating: "At home, everyone can be abnormal, and people can form whatever family unit they want. But they can't make demands from me, as the state." In the same discussion, he told the audience: "I am a proud homophobe." He later apologized, and retracted his statement, saying: "Someone shouted from the crowd, and I responded inattentively." In July 2015, after a fatal stabbing attack on the Jerusalem gay pride parade, he referred to the march as an "abomination" and a "beast parade". The following month, Smotrich accused LGBT organizations of controlling the media and silencing those who share his conservative views. An Israeli NGO, "Ometz", filed a complaint to the Knesset Ethics Committee to intervene and investigate Smotrich's comments.

He was arrested during protests against the disengagement plan in 2005, and was held in jail for three weeks, but not charged. In 2006, he helped organize the "Beast Parade" as part of protests against a gay pride parade in Jerusalem, although he later admitted regret at the incident.

Bezalel Yoel Smotrich (Hebrew: בְּצַלְאֵל יוֹאֵל סְמוֹטְרִיץ׳ , born 27 February 1980) is an Israeli politician. The leader of Tkuma, he is currently a member of the Knesset for the Yamina alliance. Smotrich is also the co-founder of the NGO Regavim, an organization that monitors and pursues legal action in the Israeli court system against any construction lacking Israeli permits undertaken by Palestinians or Bedouins in Israel and in the West Bank.