Ayelet Shaked
ex Wiki
Ayelet Shaked (born
7 May 1976) is an Israeli politician and
computer engineer. She has served as a member of the
Knesset
for
the Jewish Home since 2013, and as
Minister of Justice since 2015. Although representing a religious party,
Shaked identifies as a
secular politician. She began her career in the
Tel Aviv
high-tech industry.[1][2]
Early life and
career
Shaked was born Ayelet Ben Shaul in
Tel Aviv,
to a well educated upper middle class Israeli family. Her mother, a Bible
teacher, was
Ashkenazi (whose ancestors migrated as part of the
First Aliyah from the
Russian Empire and
Romania
in the 1880s) and voted for center-left parties. Her father, born in
Iran to an
Iraqi Jewish family that immigrated to Israel in the 1950s, was an
accountant and voted
Likud.[3][4][5]
She grew up in the
Bavli
neighbourhood of Tel Aviv. She identified her political awakening to 8 years
old, after watching a television debate between
Yitzhak Shamir and
Shimon Peres, where she supported Shamir.[4][6]
She served in the
IDF as an infantry instructor in the
Golani Brigade.[4]
At
Tel Aviv University, she obtained a
BSc in
electrical engineering and
computer science. She began her career in the Tel Aviv
high-tech industry,[1]
working as a
software engineer and later becoming manager of marketing at
Texas Instruments.
Public career
From 2006 to 2008, she was office director for the office of
Benjamin Netanyahu. In 2010 she established
My
Israel with
Naftali Bennett and led it until May 2012.
From the end of 2011, she campaigned against illegal immigration from Africa to Israel, saying that it poses a threat to the state and also involves severe economic damage.[7] She also campaigned against Galei Tzahal saying it had a "left leaning agenda".[8]
In January 2012 Shaked was elected to serve as a member of the Likud's Central Committee; however, in June 2012 she resigned and joined the Jewish Home. On 14 November 2012 she won third place in the party's primaries, and was placed in the fifth spot on the Jewish Home list for the 2013 elections. With the list winning 12 seats, Shaked became the only secular Jewish Home MK. She subsequently joined the Economic Affairs Committee, the House Committee, and the Committee on Foreign Workers, and served as an alternate member on the Finance Committee. She also chaired the Knesset committee for the Enforcement of the Security Service Law and the National-Civilian Service Law and the Special Committee for the Equal Sharing of the Burden Bill, as well as serving as the head of the Knesset Lobby for Infiltrators, the Lobby for Israeli Literature and the Encouragement of Reading in Israel and the Lobby for Jonathan Pollard. She serves as a member of the Lobby to Promote the Employment of Arab Women Academics, the Lobby for Female Knesset Members, Lobby for Equality in Employment, Lobby for Reserve Soldiers, the Lobby for alliances with Christians, the Lobby for the Hi-Tech Industry in Israel, and others.
In June 2014, Shaked posted an article by the late Israeli writer Uri Elitzur on Facebook.[9] The Facebook post was variously described in the media as calling Palestinian children "little snakes" and appearing to justify mass punishment of Palestinians.[10][11][12][13][14][15] Based upon the Facebook post, the then Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that Shaked's mindset was no different from Adolf Hitler's.[15][16] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned Erdoğan’s comments, stating "Erdogan's anti-Semitic comments profaned the memory of the Holocaust." The leader of Israeli leftist Meretz party, Zehava Gal-On, suggested that "because of the presidential election Erdoğan has lost control."[17] Shaked stated that her post was portrayed falsely in the media, especially in that the article was presented as her own words rather than Elitzur's.[9] A week earlier, Shaked wrote: "This is not a war against terror, and not a war against extremists, and not even a war against the Palestinian Authority. The reality is that this is a war between two people. Who is the enemy? The Palestinian people. Why? Ask them, they started it."[14]
Minister of Justice
She was placed third on the Jewish Home list for the
2015 elections,[18]
and was re-elected to the Knesset. On 6 May 2015, it was reported that Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to appoint Shaked as Minister of
Justice as part of a plan to form a new coalition government.[19][20][21]
Shaked took office as Justice Minister on 14 May 2015.[4]
In July 2015, Shaked announced that she was forming a committee to create a stable legal structure for the land plots in the West Bank.[22] The formation of the committee was agreed upon in the coalition agreement between Bayit Yehudi and Likud.[22] She has stated: "There are many areas in Judea and Samaria, whose legal status has not been organized. Its time to remove the legal ambiguity, and allow the residents of Judea and Samaria, many of whom live in settlements that were built by the Israeli government, to live without the persistent fear of challenges to their property ownership".[22] The legal status of Judea and Samaria are disputed by the Palestinians, and some politicians, who believe they are the foundations of a future Palestinian state.
In January 2016, Shaked sponsored a bill in the Knesset that would require non-governmental organizations ("NGOs") that receive a majority of their funding from "foreign government entities" to be so labeled. In an interview in the Washington Post she stated that the law would foster transparency by giving the public the right "to know which NGOs are receiving most of their support from foreign governments and therefore representing foreign government interests."[[23]
Personal life
Shaked is married and has two children and lives in
Bavli, Tel
Aviv. Her husband is a reserve fighter-pilot in the
Israeli Air Force.[3]
Awards and recognition
- Shaked is the recipient of the 2012 Abramowitz Israeli Prize for Media Criticism.[24]
- In 2012, she was included in the Globes list of the 50 most influential women.[25]
- In 2013, Shaked ranked 1st (with Shelly Yachimovich) as outstanding Knesset Member for the summer session by the Knesset Channel.[26]
- In 2014, Shaked ranked 2nd as outstanding Knesset Member for the winter session by the Knesset Channel.[[27]