Ofir Akunis

His grandfather was a Greek-Jew who immigrated to Israel from Saloniki in 1934 and was a member of the Likud Party himself.

His mother immigrated to Israel from Poland in 1957.

Ofir Akunis (אוֹפִיר אָקוּנִיס, born 28 May 1973) is an Israeli politician.

He currently serves as a member of the Knesset for Likud and is the Minister of Science and Technology.

He attended the Herzliya Hebrew High School between 1987 and 1991 and served as youth correspondent for the weekly "Ma'ariv LaNoar" magazine.

Akunis' mandatory military service was spent as a correspondent for the Chief Education Officer of the Education and Youth Corps.

After his army service he served as music editor of the radio program "Youth Club" on Reshet Gimmel and on other programs.

He completed a bachelor's degree in political science and international relations at the Open University.

In January 1992, he joined the Likud Party and began working in the information department at the party headquarters at Metzudat Ze'ev in Tel Aviv.

In June 1996, Akunis was named deputy media advisor to newly-elected Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and was later named spokesman for the Likud Party.

In 2003 he won the Menachem Begin Award for his thesis "Morals and Realism in Israeli Politics".

He later worked as a spokesman for the Minister of Justice, and in 2004 was appointed media advisor for Netanyahu when the latter served as finance minister.

Akunis continued to serve as Netanyahu's advisor until 2008 when he was appointed deputy director of communications and information for the Likud.

On 12 December 2008 the petition was accepted, and subsequently was promoted to the 26th place on the list, which is reserved for the Tel Aviv district.

Post factum, it turned out that if the petition was not accepted, he would not have been elected to the Knesset, as the Likud won 27 mandates in the elections.

Akunis was subsequently moved up to twenty-sixth place, and entered the Knesset as Likud won 27 seats.

During his first two years as a Knesset member, Ofir Akunis served as Chairman of the Economic Committee.

He was also appointed Deputy Speaker of the House.

After the flotilla to Gaza, Ofir Akunis confronted the Knesset members of the Balad party several times, and even announced several times that as the Likud's representative to the Central Elections Committee he would demand the disqualification of their list and the disqualification of MK Hanin Zuabi, who participated in the flotilla.

Prior to the 2009 elections, Akunis participated in the primaries for the Likud and reached the 28th place.

He submitted a petition to the election committee of the Likud together with other candidates.

In 2013 Akunis placed 18th on the Likud Party's election slate for the 19th Knesset, but was dropped to number 29 after the party decided to run on a joint ticket with the Yisrael Beteinu party.

Nevertheless, Akunis was re-elected and appointed Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, acting as the liaison between the government and the Knesset with the portfolio of the Advancement of Young People and Students.

As the liaison between the government and the Knesset, Akunis responded to opposition-sponsored motions of no confidence on behalf of the government.

He also spoke much about "Prawer plan," negotiations with the Palestinians and with Israeli towns in the disputed territories..

On 9 December 2014, Akunis was appointed Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection.

Akunis replaced Amir Peretz, who resigned from his post as Minister.

After recruiting a majority of 19 supporters against 9 opponents, the Central Elections Committee disqualified Zuabi from running for the 19th Knesset.

During a pre-vote debate, Akunis said, "Zuabi did not stop undermining the State of Israel, and openly incited against it and against IDF soldiers. He participated in the flotilla, do you need any more than that to disqualify her candidacy?"

After a few days, the Supreme Court overturned the decision.

According to the statistics of the Knesset Ofir Akunis is considered a very active member, both in the Knesset plenum and in the committees in which he participates.

During his service as Chairman of the Economic Committee, Ofir Akunis collaborated with the Minister of Communications Moshe Kahlon in opening the cellular communications market to competition, including supporting a decrease in link fees and adding virtual operators and new companies to this market.

He promoted the consumer cash refund law and initiated the reverse interest law.

In the television sector he promoted legislation regulating the transition from franchises to licenses, and initiated the increase of channels broadcast free of charge by the "Idan+" DDT broadcasting service.

He objected to the Ministry of Finance's demand to increase radio and television fees, and actually lead to its decrease.

In discussions led by the committee on state royalties on oil and gas profits, Akunis objected to the new fund's initiative to increase royalties to 80%.

However, after the publication of the Shinsky Committee's recommendations, the Knesset voted in favor of the "Oil Profit Tax Law."

Ofir Akunis promoted consumer, civilian and political related legislation, among them:

He has previously held the posts of Minister of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services in 2020, Minister of Science and Technology in 2015-2020 and Minister of Regional Cooperation in 2020-2021.

Akunis was born in Tel Aviv.