Lawmakers on the Knesset Finance Committee on Tuesday voted 10-7 to appoint Likud MK Hanoch Milwidsky as their new chairman despite an ongoing police investigation against him on suspicion of rape and witness tampering.

Milwidsky replaced former chairman MK Moshe Gafni, whose United Torah Judaism party quit the coalition earlier this month over its failure to pass a law exempting yeshiva students from military service.

The committee’s approval of Milwidsky came minutes after the Knesset House Committee, chaired by coalition whip Ofir Katz (Likud), voted 9-6 to recommend his candidacy.

“The coalition’s decision to appoint a man suspected of rape as chairman of the Finance Committee crosses a red line” and “normalizes harm to women,” Opposition Leader Yair Lapid declared. “This is a misogynistic coalition that is tearing Israeli society apart.”

Bemoaning “the appointment of a rape suspect as chairman of the Finance Committee [as] one of the lowest and saddest moments in the history of the Knesset,” Lapid asserted that “for the current coalition, suspicion of rape is not a red line.”

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Blue and White-National Unity chairman Benny Gantz likewise slammed Milwidsky’s appointment, stating that it sends a terrible message to victims of sexual violence. “Have we lost our minds?” he asked in a post on X.

MK Hanoch Milwidsky (left) chairs a meeting of the Knesset Finance Committee, July 29, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Milwidsky was questioned Friday about allegations that he raped a woman while he was serving as a legal adviser to the New Age religious association “Bnei Baruch — Kabbalah La’Am.” According to the allegations, he was coaching a woman, identified by the Hebrew initial Aleph, to testify falsely to protect the group’s leader, Michael Laitman, from charges of sexual assault. During their meetings, Aleph told police that Milwidsky raped her.

The Likud lawmaker, who was endorsed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has denied any wrongdoing. His party has cast the investigation against him as a witch hunt, constituting ostensible retaliation for its attempts to remove the attorney general.

Ahead of his official installation as chairman, Milwidsky led Tuesday morning’s Finance Committee meeting as a placeholder chair. The committee is one of the most powerful parliamentary panels, exercising oversight over issues relating to the state budget, taxation and banking.

‘A new low’

Ahead of Tuesday’s Knesset House Committee meeting, female opposition lawmakers delivered a joint statement slamming Milwidsky’s candidacy, with Blue and White-National Unity MK Pnina Tamano-Shata calling on the coalition, Israeli women, and “first and foremost” Netanyahu to “stop the appointment.”

“Do not drag the Knesset and yourselves to a new low,” declared Tamano-Shata, who chairs the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality.

The Democrats’ Efrat Rayten said that the appointment of Milwidsky was “not only a moral disgrace but a black flag waving over the legitimacy of the government’s continued tenure,” while Yesh Atid MK Merav Ben-Ari argued that “the thought that the designated chairman of the Finance Committee is suspected of the crime of rape should disturb every member of the Knesset.”

“The shocking testimonies disqualify MK Milwidsky from any position. Every member of the Knesset should ask themselves, if Hanoch were being investigated for a murder offense, would he still be appointed as chairman of the Finance Committee? Why, because it’s rape, is it accepted with indifference? Rape is the murder of the soul,” she declared.

Tamano-Shata and Ben-Ari are the only female members of the House Committee. Later in the debate, Ben-Ari yelled that Milwidsky was “a violent person; I wouldn’t sit alone with him in a room at 2:00 a.m.”

MKs (from left) Pnina Tamano-Shata, Meirav Ben-Ari and Efrat Rayten at a press conference opposing the appointment of MK Hanoch Milwidsky as Knesset Finance Committee chair, July 29, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Responding to the female lawmakers’ statements, women’s rights advocacy group Bonot Alternativa declared that “someone facing serious allegations cannot serve as the head of a committee or even as a member of Knesset in Israel. The fight against sexual offenders should transcend party lines and political sides, and it is unacceptable that the coalition is still planning to appoint him to such a significant role as committee head.”

‘A black day’

During the vote, Tamano-Shata was ejected from the House Committee after loudly interrupting Likud MK Tally Gotliv.

Gotliv launched a heated attack on the Attorney General’s Office for approving the probe into Milwidsky, whom she said she would vote for “with honor and pride.”

Speaking with The Times of Israel, Gotliv said that “it is clear to me as someone who has represented [the accused] in such cases that this case will be closed.” She was referring to her work as an attorney defending a number of alleged rapists and suspected sexual predators before she entered the Knesset.

Gotliv asserted that the fact it took the police a year to summon Milwidsky for questioning “shows the weakness of the case,” which constitutes “malicious political persecution against a member of Knesset just because he is about to accept a position.”

Like Gotliv, other coalition lawmakers responded harshly to their opposition counterparts’ criticism of Milwidsky, with Knesset ushers being forced to intervene to prevent an altercation between Likud MK Nissim Vaturi and an aide to The Democrats MK Naama Lazimi.

MK Nissim Vaturi is held back during a scuffle with an aide to MK Naama Lazimi during a Knesset House committee meeting in Jerusalem on July 29, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

The scuffle followed a fiery exchange between the two MKs, during which Lazimi compared Likud to a “criminal organization” for backing Milwidsky’s appointment. Lazimi held up a sign saying “I believe you” during the hearing.

Vaturi responded with obscenities, also calling Lazimi an “idiot” and a “criminal.” Yesh Atid MK Vladimir Beliak jumped to her defense, shouting at Vaturi: “Shut your mouth and get out of here. You’re a complete loser.”

Lazimi’s office claimed that MK Vaturi pushed a chair at the aide in question. Asked for comment, Vaturi said, “He [aide] pushed me; I stopped and defended myself.”

“Today’s conduct in the Knesset is a disgraceful event, which began with violence against an employee and ended with the appointment of a rape suspect to one of the most important positions in Israel,” the Democrats said in a statement. “Violence against a Knesset employee is unacceptable, and the Knesset must immediately impose disciplinary sanctions on him.”

Likud MK Keti Shitrit also defended Milwidsky, telling the Knesset Channel that the allegations must be investigated, “and the presumption of innocence must be maintained.”

“People have had mud slung at them and were found innocent, but their entire world was destroyed,” she said.

In his first public remarks following his approval as chairman of the Finance Committee, Milwidsky insisted that there was “a world of difference” between the allegations against him and “what actually happened.”

He said that he would not discuss the case, but was convinced that once more facts become public, “the decent people among you” will “understand a little better what exactly is being discussed.”

“I did not take any of your comments personally,” he added.

Likud MK Tally Gotliv addresses a Knesset House Committee meeting, July 29, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Asked why the coalition would support an alleged rapist, a coalition insider told The Times of Israel that “a third of the faction is under investigation or indicted. I don’t see why anyone would think this would be any different.”

“The coalition sees a case that happened before he was an MK, that the attorney general sat on it for two and a half years, and only allowed the police to question him once it was published that he was going to be promoted. They view [the AG’s] timing as political and an attempt to decide who gets promoted or not,” the source stated.

In a statement to The Times of Israel, Orit Sulitzeanu, the executive director of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, said that the country had “reached a new moral low” with Milwidsky’s appointment.

“This is a decision that shames the Israeli Knesset and puts a black mark on it. Milvitsky does not deserve to serve in such a high-ranking position when such serious suspicions have been raised against him. This shameful decision normalizes sexual assault and sends a message that members of the House Committee simply do not count victims of sexual violence and are only concerned with serving political interests,” she said. “This is a black day in the fight against sexual violence.”

Ariela Karmel contributed to this report.