Mickey Zohar

Mickey Zohar was born in 1980 in Kiryat Gat

Makhlouf "Mickey" Zohar was born in Beersheba and grew up in Kiryat Gat. His father Eli came from Morocco and his mother Dina from Tunisia. His father was killed in a road accident when Zohar was a young child.

He studied in Kiryat Gat and later in Ashkelon. He earned a law degree from the College of Law and Business and a master's degree in law from Bar-Ilan University.

After his army service he worked in real estate and chaired the Maccabi Kiryat Gat basketball team. He sat on the Kiryat Gat city council and later served as deputy mayor. He is married to Yamit and has 4 children.

Zohar entered the Knesset for Likud in 2015 and was reelected several times. He chaired the Knesset Committee, served as coalition chairman and became co-chair of Global Likud. In December 2022 he became Minister of Culture and Sport and left the Knesset under the Norwegian Law.

As minister he led a reform of Israeli film funding in 2025 and canceled about 60 state arts prizes in 2026, a move arts groups protested. In 2026 he was questioned by police as a suspect in a bribery case. He is a member of the 26th Knesset.