Ayelet Shaked

She is of Mizrahi descent on her father's side (Iraqi-Jewish) and of Ashkenazi descent on her mother's side (Russian-Jewish and Romanian-Jewish): her paternal grandmother immigrated to Israel from Iraq as a single mother in the 1950s, as part of the Jewish Exodus from the Muslim world, and carefully invested her money into property and the education of her children; and her maternal ancestors immigrated to Ottoman Palestine from the Russian Empire and Romania in the 1880s, as part of the First Aliyah.

Her father was an accountant by profession and hailed from a right-wing background, having voted Likud, while her mother was a Bible teacher and hailed from a centre-left background.

Shaked has described herself as "half-Iraqi and proud of it" with regard to her heritage.

In Tel Aviv, she grew up in the upper-middle-class neighbourhood of Bavli.

She identified her political awakening and right-wing orientation to when she was eight years old, after watching a television debate between Yitzhak Shamir and Shimon Peres, wherein she supported the conservative views of Shamir.

As a teenager, she was a main instructor in the Hebrew Scouts Movement in Israel.

Ayelet Shaked (אַיֶּילֶת שָׁקֵד ; born 7 May 1976) is an Israeli former politician, activist, and software engineer.

She served as Minister of Interior from 2021 to 2022 and as Minister of Justice from 2015 to 2019.

From 2006 to 2008, Shaked was office director for the office of Benjamin Netanyahu.

In 2010, she co-founded the "My Israel" extra-parliamentary movement alongside Naftali Bennett and led it until May 2012.

In 2010 she established My Israel with Naftali Bennett and led it until May 2012.

From the end of 2011, Shaked campaigned against illegal immigration from Africa to Israel, saying that it poses a threat to the state and also involves severe economic damage.

She also campaigned against Galei Tzahal saying it had a "left-leaning agenda".

Shaked served in the Israel Defense Forces as an infantry instructor with the Golani Brigade; she was enlisted in the 12th Barak (Lightning) Battalion as well as in Sayaret Golani.

She later enrolled in Tel Aviv University, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in the disciplines of electrical engineering and computer science, and subsequently began her career in the Israeli high-tech industry; Shaked was employed at Texas Instruments as a software engineer and later became manager of the company's marketing department.

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.

Between 2013 and 2021, she was a representative in the Knesset as a member of The Jewish Home from 2013 to 2018, and then as a founding member of the New Right from 2018 to 2019 and again from 2019 to 2020.

Shaked also served as the leader of the defunct right-wing electoral alliance Yamina.

Despite her tenure in The Jewish Home, a religious political party, she has identified as a secularist.

Before entering politics, Shaked began her career in the Israeli high-tech industry, working as an engineer at Texas Instruments shortly after graduating from Tel Aviv University.

In June 2014, Shaked posted an article by the late Israeli writer Uri Elitzur on Facebook.

The Facebook post was variously described in the media as calling Palestinian children "little snakes" and appearing to justify mass punishment of Palestinians.

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. 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."

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. She said, "I refer specifically to 'Daily Beast' writer Gideon Resnick, who so misrepresented the facts in one of my recent Facebook posts, one has to wonder if his hatred for my country hasn’t rendered him outright useless to his website and his readers."

In 2015, Shaked won the primary election for the Jewish Home Party, which was considered an achievement as a secular female politician within a religious party.

She has initiated and drafted various laws, including the 2016 NGO law, the comprehensive national anti-terrorism law, a version of the proposal for Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People, and a law limiting the powers of the Israeli Supreme Court.

Shaked was born in Tel Aviv to a well-educated, upper-middle-class family of Israeli Jews.

In December 2018 Shaked was amongst the Jewish Home MKs to leave the party and form the breakaway New Right party.

Later, in 2019, Shaked, Bennett, and Shuli Mualem founded the New Right, which did not pass the electoral threshold in the April 2019 legislative election.

Afterwards, Shaked planned to join Likud, but Miri Regev did not allow her to do so.

When Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a coalition government in the run-up to the September 2019 legislative election, Shaked ended up succeeding Bennett as leader of the New Right.

Shaked is considered to be one of the country's most active and influential legislators.

In the April 2019 Knesset elections, New Right narrowly failed to cross the electoral threshold; as a result, Shaked did not gain a seat in the 21st Knesset.

Following the loss, Shaked initially announced that she will take a break from politics for an undetermined period of time.

On 30 May 2019, after Netanyahu failed to form a governing coalition, the Knesset voted to dissolve itself and a snap election was called which was set to be held on 17 September.