Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the appointment of Yehuda Eliyahu on Monday.
A long-time associate of Smotrich, Eliyahu previously headed the Settlement Administration within the defence ministry, where he oversaw the largest Israeli land grab in the West Bank in recent memory.
His selection was approved last week by a public appointments committee, though not unanimously.
The committee’s legal adviser opposed the move, arguing that Eliyahu’s decades-long personal relationship with Smotrich posed a conflict of interest.
The Israel Land Authority oversees around 92 percent of state land - roughly 20 million dunams - and manages a budget worth billions of shekels. It plays a central role in land allocation for housing, infrastructure and development projects, and is also involved in administering land in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.




Russian attacks killed 22 people in cities across Ukraine on Tuesday, as President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned Moscow’s “utter cynicism” for launching deadly strikes while seeking a truce to stage its May 9 patriotic parade.
Democrat Chedrick Greene has won a special state Senate election in Michigan, NBC News projects, ensuring his party will keep control of the closely divided chamber.
The US military said on Tuesday it had struck a vessel in the eastern Pacific, killing three people, in the latest such attack that rights groups label as “extrajudicial killings” and Washington describes as targeting “narco-terrorists”.
It has been 20 years since the state last elected a Democrat as governor. And it has been even longer since a Democrat not named Sherrod Brown has won a second election to any nonjudicial statewide office.





























