Yoav Gallant (; born 8 November 1958) is an Israeli politician and former military officer. A member of the Knesset for Likud, he has been serving as the Minister of Defense since 2022. He is a former commander of the Southern Command in the Israel Defense Forces. In January 2015, he entered politics, joining the new Kulanu party. After being elected to the Knesset, he was appointed Minister of Construction. At the end of 2018, he joined Likud. Gallant also previously held the posts of Minister of Aliyah and Integration and Minister of Education.
Biography
Yoav Gallant was born in Jaffa to Polish Jewish immigrants. His mother, Fruma, was a Holocaust survivor who had been on the SS Exodus as a child. Along with other Exodus refugees, she was deported by the British to Hamburg, and arrived in Israel in 1948. She was a nurse by profession. His father, Michael, fought the Nazis as a partisan in the forests of Ukraine and Belarus, and also immigrated to Israel in 1948. He served in the Givati Brigade in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, including the Samson's Foxes unit, and was considered one of the finest snipers in the IDF. He participated in Operation Yoav, during which he was the first soldier to break into the fort at Iraq Suwaydan. He named his son for the operation. In Gallant's youth, the family moved to Givatayim, where he studied at David Kalai high school. He received a BA in Business and Finance Management from the University of Haifa.
Gallant lives in moshav Amikam. He is married to Claudine, a retired IDF lieutenant colonel. They have a son and two daughters.
In 2011, Gallant was tapped to succeed Gabi Ashkenazi as the Chief of General Staff by Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Although his appointment was approved by the government it was overturned due to allegations of building of an unauthorized access road to his home and planting an olive grove on public land outside the boundaries of his property.
Military career
Gallant began his military career in 1977 as a naval commando in Shayetet 13. In the 1980s, after six years of active service, he moved to Alaska and worked as a lumberjack. He then returned to the navy and served on a missile boat (including a position as deputy-commander of INS Keshet) and again in Shayetet 13. In 1992, Gallant was earmarked by then-navy commander Ami Ayalon for the command of Shayetet 13, a position he was meant to take up in 1994. Gallant preferred not to study during the two remaining years, and instead moved into the ground forces and in 1993 took up command of the Menashe Territorial Brigade of the Judea and Samaria Division.
After serving for three years as commander of Shayetet 13, Gallant moved up to command the Gaza Division. He also commanded the reserve 340th Armored Division (Idan Formation), and in 2001 became the Chief of Staff of the GOC Army Headquarters. Gallant attained the rank of a major general when he became the Military Secretary of the Prime Minister in 2002. In 2005, Gallant was appointed as commander of the Southern Command. During his tenure (that lasted until 21 October 2010), the Israel Defense Forces embarked on Operation Cast Lead against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Gallant commanded the operation and his role in the field and in the success of the operation gained praise and helped him in the race to chief of staff.
The Israeli NGO, Yesh Gvul, filed suit against Gallant's appointment as IDF chief of staff, claiming that his command role in Cast Lead confirmed him as a suspect in "grave violations of international law." Haaretz noted that Gallant lobbied against an investigation of Col. Ilan Malka, the IDF commander who approved the airstrike that killed 21 members of the al-Samouni clan during Cast Lead. Gallant's view was ignored as the military prosecutor general opened an investigation of the incident which was highlighted by the Goldstone Report as a possible serious breach of international law.
Chief of Staff candidacy
On 22 August 2010, Minister of Defense Ehud Barak presented the candidacy of Gallant for the post of the IDF's twentieth Chief of Staff to the government. It was expected that he would receive the promotion. Gallant's appointment followed a controversy, where a forged document was leaked to Israel's Channel 2 purporting to detail plans by Gallant to smear rival candidate Benny Gantz.
