Israel

“I don’t matter to Knesset members,” says Elana Sztokman in a campaign video for the new women’s party she just co-founded. She rattles off a list of issues that she says are routinely ignored by lawmakers – from gender issues to education and health care, to the women murdered by boyfriends and relatives. “Do you feel like you also don’t matter? Join us,” she concludes.

In mid-January, Israel’s political parties finalized their lists for what will hopefully be the last general election for a while. A referendum on the future of Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, dogged by corruption charges, and on the prospect of West Bank annexation, this election—the third in the last year—could be among Israel’s most consequential.

Israelis are heading to the polls in a unique election. The vote on September 17 is the first time Israelis will vote in two elections in the same year, after the Likud party, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, failed to form a new coalition government following the April 2019 election. It’s also exceptional in terms of female political leadership – the only woman heading a party in this election, Ayelet Shaked, is a secular woman leading an alliance of religious, right-wing parties.

The Jewish Home party affirmed its support for women in political leadership roles after a prominent religious Zionist rabbi said politics “is no place for a woman.”

A number of Israeli rabbis have signed a letter criticising the possibility of appointing former Israeli Justice Minister, Ayelet Shaked, as head of the Union of Right-Wing Parties because “women should not be involved in politics”.

New election questionnaire finds women tend to lean to the left in the voting ballots, but when it comes to diplomacy and security, they're more hawkish than men.

Click here to read the full article published by Haaretz on 2 April 2019.