Who they are
Yinon Azoulay is a Shas member of the Knesset and chairman of the party’s faction. He trained as a medic and ran the Lachish branch of United Hatzalah, the volunteer emergency service, before he went into politics.
He was born in Acre in 1979 to Pnina and David Azoulay. He did not serve in the army and volunteered instead for a year of national service. He settled in Ashdod, became one of the senior figures in the Shas branch there and stood on the party’s list for the city council in 2013, and he spent two years as a senior adviser to the minister Aryeh Deri.
He reached the Knesset when his father, the Shas MK David Azoulay, resigned on health grounds. It was only the second time in the Knesset’s history that a son had replaced his father, and his father died six months later. Azoulay chaired the Ethics Committee until July 2024 and has sat on the Knesset, Finance and Foreign Affairs and Defence committees. In November 2025 he joined the Shas team negotiating the conscription law and the status of yeshiva students, and Haredi demonstrators from the Jerusalem Faction picketed his home for several days, banged on his door and damaged his car.
Positions and record
Draft: Hardline on exemption; harsh critic of the High Court.
Judiciary: Backs the overhaul and curbing the attorney general.
Religion: Against Reform recognition at state religious sites.
Where they stand
Holds the party line on every issue.
Judea & Samariaparty lineIt follows the Knesset and the government on Judea and Samaria rather than setting a line of its own, and opposes any division of Jerusalem.
Two states / withdrawalSovereignty / annexation
Gaza & Securityparty lineIt backed the hostage agreement, holding that no commandment matters more than saving the lives of hostages.
Deal & disengagementFull military control
Haredi Enlistmentparty lineTorah study is service. A law settling the status of yeshiva students is its one condition for joining a government, and it left the government in 2025 when none came.
Universal draftPreserve exemptions
Judiciaryparty lineIt does not recognise the Supreme Court's authority over the party, and would bar the court from reviewing the appointment of ministers.
Court can strike lawsKnesset can override
Economyparty lineAgainst globalisation and the privatisation of welfare: the minimum wage raised by a quarter, manpower agencies abolished, and old-age pensions at a third of the average wage.
Social spendingFree market
Educationparty lineIt fights to keep its own network independent, refusing outside control of what it teaches and what it is paid, and Deri calls the struggle a holy war.
State runs the schoolsParents and communities
Religion & Stateparty lineThe religious status quo and a stronger rabbinate, with kashrut returned to the Chief Rabbinate, while the state also supplies other faiths their religious needs.
Civil / pluralistReligious authority
Nation & Citizenshipparty lineA Jewish state and the ingathering of the exiles, and it asked in coalition talks for the grandchild clause of the Law of Return to be abolished.
Equal citizenshipJewish national state
