This is a list of Israeli public officials convicted of crimes or misdemeanors, alphabetized by branch. Only those in the highest levels of the executive, legislative, or judicial branches are included.[citation needed]
Presidents
Moshe Katsav – the 8th president of the State of Israel. In a landmark and unprecedented case, on 30 December 2010, Katsav was convicted of two counts of
rape,
obstruction of justice, and other charges. On 22 March 2011, in a landmark ruling, Katsav was sentenced to seven years in prison.[1]
Prime ministers
Ehud Olmert – Prime minister from 2006 to 2009, cabinet minister 1988–1992, 2003–2006, mayor of Jerusalem 1993–2003. Convicted of breach of trust in July 2012, and of bribery in March 2015. In May 2015, Olmert was sentenced to six years in prison, but his sentence was reduced to 18 months in December 2015.[2]
Shlomo Benizri – served as
Minister of Health and
Labor and Social Welfare Minister during the late 1990s and early 2000s. In 2008, Benizri was convicted of accepting
bribes, breach of faith, obstructing justice, and conspiracy to commit a crime for accepting favors worth millions of shekels from his friend, contractor Moshe Sela, in exchange for inside information regarding foreign workers scheduled to arrive in Israel. As a result, Benizri was sentenced to 18 months in jail and
moral turpitude was added to the offense.[citation needed]
Aryeh Deri –
Minister of Internal Affairs between 1988 and 1993, and (briefly)
Deputy Prime Minister in the
37th government of Israel until the
Supreme Court removed him due to his previous conviction. Convicted of taking $155,000 in bribes while serving as Interior Minister and given a three-year jail sentence in 2000.[7] Deri was re-elected to the Knesset in 2013, indicted for numerous crimes in 2019; and was convicted again in 2022 for several tax offenses. As part of his plea deal received a year's suspended sentence, paid a NIS 180,000 fine, and resigned from Knesset. Because of his resignation, no decision was made on whether the offenses carried the designation of "moral turpitude" which would again bar him from running for office for seven years.[8][9][10][11][12][13][14]
Tzachi Hanegbi – Among the top cabinet positions he previously held are Minister of Justice, Minister of Internal Security, and Minister of Intelligence and Nuclear Affairs. On 13 July 2010, Hanegbi was convicted of
perjury, and subsequently was fined 10,000 NIS, and
moral turpitude was added to the offense. As a result, Hanegbi suspended himself from the Knesset.[15]
Avraham Hirschson – The Israeli Minister of Finance between 2006 and 2007. In 2009, Hirschson was convicted of stealing close to 2 million
shekels from the National Workers Labor Federation while he was its chairman.[16][17][18] Hirschson was sentenced to five years and five months in prison and a fine of 450,000 shekels.[19]
Avigdor Lieberman – Israel's former foreign minister. Lieberman was convicted in September 2001, under a plea bargain, of threatening and assaulting a 12-year-old who had hit his son, and was ordered to pay the child a compensation of 10,000 shekels, and an additional fine of 7,500 shekels.[citation needed]
Yitzhak Mordechai – Israel's
Minister of Defense and
Minister of Transport in the 1990s. Mordechai was convicted of harassing and sexually assaulting two women during his military service and later periods. As a result, Mordechai received an 18-month suspended sentence. After his conviction, he resigned from the Knesset.[21]
Saleh Tarif – a
Druze Knesset member, and first non Jewish minister. In April 2004 Tarif was convicted of
bribery,
fraud and
breach of trust, and was sentenced to six months of
community service, fined 25,000 NIS and a suspended sentence of eight months.[24]
Knesset members
Yosef Ba-Gad – Former
Moledet member convicted of forgery and attempted fraud connected to his attempts to register his political party.[25]
Naomi Blumenthal – Knesset member in the
Likud party. On 13 February 2006, Blumenthal was convicted of
bribery and
obstruction of justice and was sentenced to 8 months in prison, a ten-month suspended sentence, and a fine of 75,000 shekels.[26]
Shmuel Flatto-Sharon – Knesset member between 1977 and 1981. In 1979, Flatto-Sharon was convicted of false promises of housing solutions for groups and thus choose sentenced to three months of
community service and a suspended sentence of 15 month. In 2000 Flatto-Sharon was convicted of fraudulently receiving a sum of ten million from a French company. In accordance with the plea bargain Flatto-Sharon was sentenced to 11 months in prison, a 1.2 million dollars compensation payment to the French company, as well as a suspended sentence of three years.[citation needed]
Michael Gorlovsky – Knesset member in the
Likud party between 2003 and 2006. Gorlovsky was involved in what became known as the "double votes scam" affair together with MK
Yehiel Hazan.[27] In a plea bargain, Gorlovsky was charged with
breach of trust rather than fraud, and was sentenced to two months of
community service.[citation needed]
Yehiel Hazan – Knesset member in the
Likud party. Hazan was convicted of voting twice during the second and third readings of a bill on the emergency economic plan in May 2003. Hazan was sentenced in June 2006 for 4 months of
community service and a six-month suspended prison term.[28][29]
Ofer Hugi – Knesset member in the
Shas party. On 25 December 2006, Hugi was convicted of various charges related to
forgery and
fraud. As a result, Hugi was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to pay a 12,000 shekel fine.[citation needed]
Meir Kahane – Sole member of the
Kach party, convicted of domestic terrorism in the early 1970s prior to moving to Israel in the 1980s. Spent a year in prison for his crimes.[30]
Faina Kirschenbaum – Deputy minister for Internal Affairs, and member of
Yisrael Beitenu. Indicted for an extensive network of bribery. Her accomplice and party headquarter chief was jailed for 7 years.[31]
Yair Levy – Knesset member in the
Shas party between 1988 and 1992. In 1993, he was jailed for five years for embezzling
NIS 500,000 from the party's El HaMa'ayan organisation.[32]
Said Nafa – Druze member of the Balad party. Convicted of illegally entering an enemy state and of contact with a foreign agent.[33]
Yair Peretz – Knesset member in the
Shas party. In March 2006 Peretz was convicted of fraudulently obtaining an academic degree.
Shmuel Rechtman – Knesset member in the
Likud party between 1977 and 1979. In 1979, Rechtman was convicted of taking
bribes and was sentenced to imprisonment, thus he became the first Knesset member who was convicted of criminal offenses and sentenced to imprisonment.[citation needed]
Omri Sharon – Knesset member in the
Likud and
Kadima parties during the 2000s. In 2006, Sharon was convicted of
fraud and sentenced to 9 months in prison.[citation needed]
Haneen Zoabi – Member of
Balad party, convicted of insulting a public official after a plea deal. One of the original charges that was dropped was for threatening public officials when she implied violence against
Arab-Israeli police officers.[34]
Oren Hazan – Former Knesset member for
Likud, convicted for assault and received 100 hours of community service after assaulting a civil servant in
Ariel.[35]
Chief Rabbis
Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron – Sefardi Chief Rabbi 1993-2003, convicted of fraud for giving out false rabbinic ordinations.
Yona Metzger – Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi 2003-2013, bribery, fraud, and money laundering. Received a jail sentence of three and a half years and a 5 million shekel fine.
Mayors
Zvi Bar – Mayor of
Ramat Gan 1989-2013, convicted of corruption and sentenced to 5.5 years in prison in June 2015.[citation needed]
Itamar Shimoni - Mayor of Ashkelon convicted and sentenced to 2 years in jail for paying almost 1 million ILS as hush money to a woman he had exmarital relationship with as well as bribery and breach of trust
Asher Yadlin – Leading member in the 1960s and 1970s of the
Israeli Labor Party, former head of the
Kupat Holim Clalit and the
Hevrat Ovdim. In 1976, two days before he was due to take office as Governor of the
Bank of Israel, Yadlin was arrested and charged with accepting bribes. On conviction, he was sentenced to, and served, five years in prison.[citation needed]
Ari Harow – Benjamin Netanyahu's chief of staff. Convicted of bribery, fraud, breach of trust and money laundering.[38]
^Lubitsch, Ward (8 June 2009).
"בית המשפט קבע: אברהם הירשזון גנב" [The court ruled: Avraham Hirschson stole] (in Hebrew).
Ynet. Retrieved 4 September 2014. The judge in the district court for Tel-Aviv, Bracha Ophir Tom, convicted Hirschson of stealing approximately 2 million shekels from the National Workers Labor Federation....
^Ofra Edelman (23 June 2009).
"ערב גזר הדין: אברהם הירשזון החזיר עוד 570 אלף שקלים להסתדרות העובדים הלאומית" [On the eve of his sentencing, Hirschson returned another 570,000 shekels to the National Workers Labor Federation]. Haaretz (in Hebrew). Retrieved 4 September 2014. ... the amount of money [stolen] was not decided formally by the judge, who said orally during the sentencing hearings that her calculations place the figure at 1.79 million shekels. Since the issue was not formally decided by the court, [defense attorney Yaakov] Weinrot informed the National Workers Labor Federation that according to their calculations [Hirschson] was convicted of stealing 1.73 million shekels.