11 September 2019

Ayelet Shaked, a secular woman leader of a religious party

Ayelet Shaked (Tel Aviv, 1976) will lead the Yamina alliance (formerly called United Right), a coalition of right wing parties. Shaked started her political career in the Likud party but in 2010 she established, together with Naftali Bennet, the extra-parliamentary movement My Israel, which she led until 2012. In 2013 she joined The Jewish Home and became a member of the Knesset. In 2015 she won the primary election for The Jewish Home list, and was positioned third on the list (after the chairmen of the two parties composing the list). That same year she entered the Netanyahu’s coalition government as Minister of Justice, position she held until 2019. Towards the April 2019 elections, she and Bennet established the New Right party, which eventually did not pass the electoral threshold. Given Netanyahu’s failure to form a government, and the announcement of new elections, Shaked and Bennett joined forces with other religious-right parties to form Yamina, with Shaked – a secular woman – being the leader of the religious party. Her views include the aspiration to transform the judicial system, opposition to illegal immigration from Africa to Israel, support to Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

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