Panel of feminist activists, journalists, artists, intellectuals rank the Knesset's 24 female members in new report.
By LAHAV HARKOVZehava Gal-On 521(photo credit: Courtesy: Dor Gerbash)
Meretz leader Zehava Gal-On is the most feminist MK, the “Female Parliament” announced on Wednesday.The Female Parliament is a project of the Hebrew-language online women’s magazine Saloona, in honor of International Women’s Day. The magazine gathered a panel of feminist activists, journalists, artists and intellectuals to examine the 24 female Knesset members, and published a 53-page report, which ranks them.Gal-On came in first place, as a result of her leading the battle to prevent the government from raising women’s retirement age and submitting a bill to give divorced women a right to part of their ex-husbands’ pensions.In addition, she proposed a bill giving a grant to help those leaving battered women’s shelters to rebuild their lives, which has passed plenum readings and is likely to become law.Saloona also mentioned Gal- On’s participation in protests and demonstrations against discrimination and has given speeches on the subject in the Knesset.“I was very happy and even excited to hear that I was chosen,” Gal-On said after the ranking was published. “Women have come a long way towards equality in the past decades.Many laws have been passed, and the public discourse encourages equality.”However, the Meretz leader added, discrimination and abuse of women still exists and there is a lot of work to be done to ensure that there is true gender equality.MK Orit Zuaretz (Kadima) came in second place, with a special mention of her work on bills against prostitution and human trafficking, followed by Labor leader Shelly Yacimovich, MK Orly Levy-Abecasis (Israel Beiteinu) and Culture and Sport Minister Limor Livnat, who is also chairwoman of the Ministerial Committee on the Status of Women.Knesset Committee on the Status of Women chairwoman Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) came in eighth place, and opposition leader Tzipi Livni (Kadima) came in 12th.
MK Yulia Shamalov-Berkovich (Kadima) came in last place.Saloona pointed out that the Kadima MK proposed a bill that would not give mothers automatic custody of young children after a divorce, and quoted her complaining about the “radical feminist jihad.”
