Yonatan Yosef, is a

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

, a former spokesman for Jewish settlers in

Sheikh Jarrah Sheikh Jarrah ( ar, الشيخ جراح, he, שייח' ג'ראח) is a predominantly Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem, north of the Old City, on the road to Mount Scopus. It received its name from the 13th-century tomb of Sheikh Ja ...

, and right-wing activist for the

Judaization Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the M ...

of East Jerusalem. A member of

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

since 2018. In 2013, Yosef ran for

City Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

. In 2018, he was elected to the city council, being in the second place in "Meuchadim" list headed by Aryeh King, which won two of the 31 seats in the counsil. In the 2019 general elections, he was placed 3 in list of Yachad party headed by

Eli Yishai Eliyahu "Eli" Yishai ( he, אליהו "אלי" ישי, born 26 December 1962) is an Israeli politician. A former leader of Shas, he represented the party in the Knesset from 1996 until 2015, also holding several ministerial posts, including bein ...

, but the party withdrew few days before the election. Yosef obtained ownership of a house in part of

in which a Jewish neighborhood existed prior to the

1948 war The 1948 Palestine war was fought in the territory of what had been, at the start of the war, British-ruled Mandatory Palestine. It is known in Israel as the War of Independence ( he, מלחמת העצמאות, ''Milkhemet Ha'Atzma'ut'') and ...

, and that the Jordanian authorities rented to a family of

Palestinian refugees Palestinian refugees are citizens of Mandatory Palestine, and their descendants, who fled or were expelled from their country over the course of the 1947–49 Palestine war (1948 Palestinian exodus) and the Six-Day War (1967 Palestinian exodu ...

. In 2021 he demanded the eviction of the family, and personally delivered them the eviction notice. In reference to

, in the 2012 short film ''My Neighbourhood'', Yosef stated that: "The Bible says that this area and this country belong to the Jewish people." "We take house after house because we prove in the court that this area belonged to the Jewish. And because that, all this area will be a Jewish neighbourhood. Our dream is that all East Jerusalem will be like West Jerusalem, Jewish capital of Israel." In 2023, he was marching in Sheikh Jarrah with a group of supporters, chanting "we want

Nakba Clickable map of Mandatory Palestine with the depopulated locations during the 1947–1949 Palestine war. The Nakba ( ar, النكبة, translit=an-Nakbah, lit=the "disaster", "catastrophe", or "cataclysm"), also known as the Palestinian Ca ...

, Nakba now!" He is the son of Rabbi Ya'akov Yosef and the grandson of

Ovadia Yosef Ovadia Yosef ( he, , Ovadya Yosef, ; September 24, 1920 – October 7, 2013) was an Iraqi-born Talmudic scholar, a posek, the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1973 to 1983, and a founder and long-time spiritual leader of Israel's ultra-Orthod ...

References

Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century births Living people 21st-century Israeli politicians City councillors of Jerusalem Jewish Israeli politicians Ovadia Yosef Sephardic Haredi rabbis in Israel {{israel-rabbi-stub