# Ministry of Economy (Israel)

The Ministry of Economy (Hebrew: משרד הכלכלה, Misrad HaKalkala) is a ministry of the Israeli government that oversees commerce, industry and labor in Israel.

## History

The ministry was established in 1948 as the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. In 1977 the Tourism Ministry post was added to it, becoming the Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Tourism. However, the merger was reversed in 1981 and the office was renamed Ministry of Industry and Trade. Labor, which had been merged with the Welfare Ministry in the 1970s, was appended to the portfolio in 2003.

## List of ministers

| # | Minister | Party | Government | Term start | Term end | Notes |
| Minister of Trade and Industry |||||||
| 1 | Peretz Bernstein | General Zionists | P | 14 May 1948 | 10 March 1949 | |
| 2 | Eliezer Kaplan | Mapai | 1 | 10 March 1949 | 1 November 1950 | |
| 3 | Ya'akov Geri | Not an MK | 2 | 1 November 1950 | 8 October 1951 | |
| 4 | Dov Yosef | Mapai | 3 | 8 October 1951 | 24 December 1952 | |
| – | Peretz Bernstein | General Zionists | 4, 5 | 24 December 1952 | 29 June 1955 | |
| 5 | Peretz Naftali | Mapai | 6 | 29 June 1955 | 3 November 1955 | |
| 6 | Pinchas Sapir | Mapai | 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 | 3 November 1955 | 25 May 1965 | |
| 7 | Haim Yosef Zadok | Mapai, Alignment | 12, 13 | 25 May 1965 | 22 November 1966 | |
| 8 | Ze'ev Sherf | Alignment | 13, 14 | 22 November 1966 | 15 December 1969 | |
| 9 | Yosef Sapir | Gahal | 15 | 15 December 1969 | 6 August 1970 | |
| – | Pinchas Sapir | Alignment | 15 | 1 September 1970 | 5 March 1972 | |
| 10 | Haim Bar-Lev | Not an MK | 15, 16, 17 | 5 March 1972 | 20 June 1977 | Not an MK at the time of his appointment, but later elected to the Knesset on the Alignment list |
| Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism |||||||
| 11 | Yigal Hurvitz | Likud | 18 | 20 June 1977 | 1 October 1978 | |
| 12 | Gideon Patt | Likud | 18 | 15 January 1979 | 5 August 1981 |
| Minister of Industry and Trade |||||||
| – | Gideon Patt | Likud | 19, 20 | 5 August 1981 | 13 September 1984 | |
| 13 | Ariel Sharon | Likud | 21, 22, 23 | 13 September 1984 | 20 February 1990 | |
| 14 | Moshe Nissim | Likud | 23, 24 | 7 March 1990 | 13 July 1992 | |
| 15 | Michael Harish | Labor Party | 25, 26 | 13 July 1992 | 18 June 1996 | |
| 16 | Natan Sharansky | Yisrael BaAliyah | 27 | 18 June 1996 | 6 July 1999 | |
| 17 | Ran Cohen | Meretz | 28 | 6 July 1999 | 24 June 2000 | |
| 18 | Ehud Barak | One Israel | 28 | 24 September 2000 | 7 March 2001 | |
| 19 | Dalia Itzik | Labor Party | 29 | 7 March 2001 | 2 November 2002 | |
| – | Ariel Sharon | Likud | 29 | 2 November 2002 | 28 February 2003 | |
| Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor |||||||
| 20 | Ehud Olmert | Likud, Kadima | 30 | 28 February 2003 | 4 May 2006 | |
| 21 | Eli Yishai | Shas | 31 | 4 May 2006 | 31 March 2009 | |
| 22 | Binyamin Ben-Eliezer | Labor Party | 32 | 31 March 2009 | 17 January 2011 | |
| 23 | Shalom Simhon | Independence | 32 | 18 January 2011 | 22 January 2013 | |
| Minister of the Economy |||||||
| 24 | Naftali Bennett | The Jewish Home | 33 | 23 January 2013 | 14 May 2015 | |
| 25 | Aryeh Deri | Shas | 34 | 14 May 2015 | 3 November 2015 | |
| 26 | Benjamin Netanyahu | Likud | 34 | 3 November 2015 | 1 August 2016 | |
| 27 | Moshe Kahlon | Kulanu | 34 | 1 August 2016 | 23 January 2017 | |
| 28 | Eli Cohen | Kulanu | 34 | 23 January 2017 | 17 May 2020 | |
| 29 | Amir Peretz | Labor Party | 35 | 17 May 2020 | 13 June 2021 | |
| 30 | Orna Barbivai | Yesh Atid | 36 | 13 June 2021 | 29 December 2022 | |
| 31 | Nir Barkat | Likud | 37 | 29 December 2022 | | |

### Deputy ministers

| # | Minister | Party | Government | Term start | Term end |
| 1 | Zalman Suzayiv | General Zionists | 4, 5 | 15 June 1953 | 29 June 1955 |
| 2 | Aryeh Eliav | Alignment | 13 | 17 October 1966 | 22 November 1966 |
| – | Aryeh Eliav | Alignment | 13 | 28 November 1966 | 26 June 1967 |
| 3 | Yitzhak Peretz | Likud | 18 | 28 June 1977 | 15 January 1979 |
| 4 | Masha Lubelsky | Labor Party | 25, 26 | 4 August 1992 | 18 June 1996 |
| 5 | Eli Ben-Menachem | Labor Party | 29 | 7 March 2001 | 2 November 2002 |
| 6 | Michael Ratzon | Likud | 30 | 5 March 2003 | 28 October 2004 |
| 7 | Eli Aflalo | Kadima | 30 | 30 March 2005 | 4 May 2006 |
| 8 | Orit Noked | Labor Party | 32 | 31 March 2009 | 18 January 2011 |
| 9 | Yair Golan | Meretz | 36 | 13 June 2021 | 29 December 2022 |