Moshe Kahlon

Moshe Kahlon was born in 1960 in Hadera

Kahlon was born in 1960 in the Givat Olga neighborhood of Hadera. His parents were Jews who came to Israel from Tripoli, Libya, and his father worked in construction. At 14 he left school to learn a trade and worked as a metalworker at Kibbutz Gan Shmuel.

He served in the IDF from 1978 to 1986 and completed his matriculation during his service. He later earned a BA in political science from the University of Haifa and a law degree from the Netanya Academic College. After the army he imported car products until 2001.

In 2001 Uzi Landau made him his bureau chief at the Ministry of Public Security. He entered the Knesset for Likud in 2003 and became Deputy Speaker. As Minister of Communications from 2009, he carried out a cellular market reform that brought in new competitors, and in 2011 he also became Minister of Welfare.

He did not run in 2013 and founded Kulanu in 2014. The party won 10 seats in 2015, and he served as Minister of Finance until 2020, focusing on housing prices. Kulanu merged with Likud, and he left politics in 2020.

In 2021 he became chairman of Unet Credit and resigned in 2022. The Israel Securities Authority investigated him, and he was later convicted in the case.