The board of directors of Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael–Jewish National Fund appointed Ilan Shohat, a former mayor and top civil servant, as its next CEO on Tuesday, ending a nearly three-year search. 

Shohat, who served as mayor of the northern Israeli city of Tzfat and as director-general of the Ministry of the Negev, Galilee and National Resilience under then-Minister Oded Forer, of the Israel Beiteinu Party, was nominated by KKL-JNF’s selection committee last month. His appointment was unanimously approved by the board on Tuesday. Shohat succeeds Amnon Ben-Ami, who left the role in 2023. Deputy CEO Shimi Baron has been serving as acting CEO.

“Appointing Ilan Shohat as CEO will strengthen KKL–JNF. After nearly three years without a permanent CEO, this appointment was top priority at the start of my term, and I am pleased that the organization can now move forward under strong professional leadership,” Eyal Ostrinsky, chair of KKL-JNF, said in a statement. 

Since entering office in January, Ostrinksy has moved quickly, passing a $598 million budget for KKL-JNF and making a number of emergency allocations in response to the wars with Iran and Hezbollah. Under a coalition agreement that was signed late last year, the five-year term of KKL-JNF chair has been divided in two, with Ostrinsky serving in the role for the first half of the term on behalf of the center-left bloc, after which the position will be held by a representative of the Likud. 

Earlier this month, the KKL-JNF board also decided to cut funding to nearly all of its projects in the West Bank after a Haaretz investigation found that many of them were being used to bring at-risk youth to illegal outposts, some of which were tied to extremist violence against Palestinians. 

“Regretfully, under the guise of education, it turned out we were supporting activities aimed at bringing youth at risk to the settlements to help dispossess Palestinians from their land,” Ostrinksy told Haaretz this week.

Speaking to eJewishPhilanthropy on the second day of his tenure, Ostrinsky indicated that the organization was looking for a CEO with Shohat’s experience, specifically someone who had previously served as director-general of a government ministry or as head of a municipality.

Shohat also comes to the role with particular experience in running major projects in the country’s geographic periphery. In addition to his 10-year term as mayor of Tzfat — then the country’s youngest mayor — and time at the Ministry of the Negev, Galilee and National Resilience, Shohat has also served as CEO of the northern branch of the Manufacturers Association of Israel, chairman of the Peleg Hagalil Regional Water and Sewage Company and as a government relations advisor to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s workforce development initiative TEVET in the Negev and Galilee.

“This is especially important at this time, as KKL–JNF leads the rehabilitation and development of the Galilee and the Negev, with a focus on northern border communities. Ilan Shohat is the right person to advance the board’s policies at this critical moment,” Ostrinsky said.

Though Shohat has, over the years, been a member of several center-right political parties — Likud, Kadima and Yisrael Beiteinu — the CEO of KKL-JNF is explicitly an apolitical role, unlike the board chair position, which is an appointment connected to the World Zionist Congress elections. 

“Together with Chairman Ostrinsky, the board members, management and employees, I am confident that we will continue to advance the organization’s key Zionist goals, foremost among them strengthening Israel’s north and south, especially at a time when these regions are on the frontlines,” Shohat said in a statement.