Ayelet Shaked

Ayelet Shaked
Date of birth 7 May 1976
Place of birth Tel Aviv, Israel
Knessets 19, 20
Faction represented in Knesset
2013– The Jewish Home

Ayelet Shaked (Hebrew: איילת שקד; born 7 May 1976) is an Israeli politician[1] and computer engineer. She is a member of the Knesset for The Jewish Home in the 2013 Knesset elections, and currently holds third place on the party's list.

She is a secular politician, who began her career in the Tel Aviv hi-tech industry.[2][3]


Early life and career

Ayelet Shaked was born Ayelet Ben Shaul in Tel Aviv, to an upper-middle-class family. She is of half Iraqi descent.[4] She grew up in the Bavli neighbourhood of Tel Aviv. She served in the IDF as an instructor in the Golani Brigade.

At Tel Aviv University, she obtained a BSc in electrical engineering and computer science. She began her career in the Tel Aviv hi-tech industry,[2] working as a software engineer at Texas Instruments, before later becoming a manager of the company's marketing department.

Ayelet Shaked with Reuven Rivlin, President of Israel in consultations after the elections, March 23, 2015

Public career

From 2006 to 2008, she was office director for the office of Benjamin Netanyahu. From 2010 to 2012, she established My Israel with Naftali Bennett.

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.[5] She also campaigned against Galei Tzahal saying it had a "left leaning agenda".[6]

In January 2012 Shaked was elected to serve as the coordinator of Likud; however, in June 2012 she resigned. On November 14, 2012 she took third place in the Knesset party primaries, and after their joining with HaIhud HaLeumi she was placed in the fifth spot in the joint register for elections for the 19th Knesset. The Bayit Yehudi list won 12 seats, and Shaked became the only secular Member of Knesset representing the party in the Knesset.

In the 19th Knesset she is a member of the following committees: Economic Affairs, House Committee, Committee on Foreign Workers and is an Alternate Member in the Finance Committee.

She chairs 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.

She serves 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.

Personal life

She is married with two children and lives in Bavli. Her husband is a fighter-pilot. She is secular. She campaigns for women's rights and for the integration of women into the military.

Controversy

On July 1, 2014, Shaked posted a 2002 article from speechwriter Uri Elitzur on Facebook. According to a translation by Dena Shunra,[7] which Shaked disputes,[8] Elitzur's article said, "Behind every terrorist stand dozens of men and women, without whom he could not engage in terrorism. They are all enemy combatants, and their blood shall be on all their heads. Now this also includes the mothers of the martyrs, who send them to hell with flowers and kisses. They should follow their sons, nothing would be more just. They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there."[9][10] The article continued, according to Shunra's translation, by saying that Israel should declare war on the "entire [Palestinian] people, including its elderly and its women, its cities and its villages, its property and its infrastructure."[1]

In a speech to members of the Turkish parliament, Prime Minister Erdoğan said that Shaked's mindset was no different from Adolf Hitler's and condemned Israel for "systematic atrocity and state terror" against the Palestinian people since 1948. Erdoğan said, "An Israeli woman [Shaked] said Palestinian mothers should be killed, too. And she's a member of the Israeli parliament. What is the difference between this mentality and Hitler's? If these words had been said by a Palestinian, the whole world would have denounced it."[11] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded by saying "Erdogan's anti-Semitic comments profaned the memory of the Holocaust." The leader of Israeli leftist Meretz party, Zehava Gal-On, criticized Erdoğan by saying "it seems that because of the presidential election Erdoğan has lost control. Nevertheless, there can be tolerance for a person who thinks he can use his status as the representative of the Turkish people to spread ugly and baseless lies." Gal-On, who pointed out that she has criticized the use of force by Israel in Operation Protective Edge, said that a leader who "is able to look his citizens in the eye and claim Israel is committing genocide is despicable, vile and irresponsible." She also came to Shaked's defense, saying that while she was ashamed at comments Shaked placed on her Facebook page, which apparently raised Erdoğan's ire, "she is not Hitler, and it is ridiculous to even have to point that out."[12]

In response to the reaction to her posting of Elitzur's article on Facebook, Shaked wrote an op-ed saying that the quote from her Facebook post was misrepresented by The Daily Beast‍ '​s reporter Gideon Resnick and that his mistranslation was copied by other reporters:

"Resnick actually suggested I compared Palestinian children to 'little snakes,' and accused me of fomenting Palestinian genocide. This vilification was later picked up by several bloggers and reporters, all of whom were convinced of this frightening notion, without even a scrap of fact or truth. ... Perhaps it's his own ignorance of the Hebrew language. All Resnick had to do to make Elitzur's sober, legally minded discussion sound like a speech made by Hitler himself, was to cherry pick words out of context. ... As an aside, I’ll point out that a week later The Daily Beast finally removed one blatant lie from Resnick's original article, where he accused me of being the author of statements I never made."[8]

Awards and recognition

Shaked is the recipient of the Abramowitz Israeli Prize for Media Criticism.[13] In 2012, she was included in the Globes list of the 50 most influential women.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Gaza Crisis: Turkey PM Erdogan Compares Israeli Politician Ayelet Shaked to Adolf Hitler". International Business Times.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Talks with a Tel Aviv Settler Haaretz, 22.06.2012
  3. ↑ Meet the most surprising candidate of "Jewish Home" NRG 11/26/2012
  4. ↑ Bayit Yehudi seeks out Shas voters Jerusalem Post, By LAHAV HARKOV 12/31/2014
  5. ↑ בקרוב: מאה אלף מסתננים בישראל mako | פורסם 16/11/11 15:20:30
  6. ↑ interview in jewishjournal.com
  7. ↑ Ali Abunimah (July 7, 2014). "Israeli lawmaker’s call for genocide of Palestinians gets thousands of Facebook likes". Electronic Intifada.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Shaked, Ayelet (July 16, 2014). "Exposing militant leftist propaganda". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved July 18, 2014.
  9. ↑ "Behind every terrorist stand dozens of men and women, without whom he could not engage in terrorism. They are all enemy combatants, and their blood shall be on all their heads. Now this also includes the mothers of the martyrs, who send them to hell with flowers and kisses. They should follow their sons, nothing would be more just. They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there": quoted in Mira Bar Hillel, "Why I'm on the brink of burning my Israeli passport." The Independent. July 11, 2014.
  10. ↑ "Erdogan: 'Ayelet Shaked has same mindset as Hitler'". The Jerusalem Post.
  11. ↑ "Israeli Politician Declares 'War' on 'the Palestinian People'". Haaretz.
  12. ↑ Keinon, Herb (July 20, 2014). "Netanyahu finally calls out Erdogan for anti-Semitic statements". The Jerusalem Post.
  13. ↑ Meltzer, Yoel (August 15, 2012). "An Interview with Ayelet Shaked, Secular Candidate for HaBayit HaYehudi". The Jerusalem Post.

External links