JERUSALEM: Ayelet Shaked has emerged from a crowd of younger Israeli right-wing politicians seeking to one day succeed Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister with a combination of flash and a far-right platform.
The 43-year-old former justice minister has risen from the tech industry to the head of the Yamina (Rightward) electoral list for the September 17 elections.
She was born in Tel Aviv to a father of Iraqi origin and a mother born in what would later become the state of Israel.
She earned a degree in electrical engineering and computer science from Tel Aviv University and later worked for Texas Instruments.
Shaked was initially a member of Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud and managed the premier’s office from 2006-2008 before breaking away from the party.
She then formed with her colleague Naftali Bennett the My Israel movement, which sought to promote “Jewish and Zionist values”.
Both former Likud members, the two would remain a team as they forged ahead with their political careers under the Jewish Home party, which they would later break away from as well.
Shaked was justice minister in Netanyahu’s cabinet from 2015-2019, a government seen as the most right-wing in Israel’s history.
‘Fascist’ perfume
She has managed to attract support from the religious nationalist right despite being secular herself.
“I’m the bridge between religious and secular Jews,“ Shaked told a recent conference.
She is now at the head of a political alliance with three parties, including two that are religious nationalist.
She has gained the backing of influential rabbis who see her as the best advocate of their interests.
Shaked is in favour of Israel annexing most of the occupied West Bank and is opposed to an independent Palestinian state.
Opponents accused her of eroding democratic principles during her stint as justice minister, which saw her seek to weaken the powers of the supreme court.
Many right-wingers in Israel accuse the court of overriding the will of voters by ruling against measures related to settlement building and other issues.
Ahead of the April elections, Shaked caused a stir with a political ad that showed her spraying herself with “Fascist” perfume before declaring it “smells like democracy to me”.
The video sought to argue that her policies are in fact more democratic.
Shaked was named Israel’s most influential woman by Forbes magazine in 2017 and 2018.
Married to an Air Force combat pilot, she is the mother of two children and lives in Tel Aviv.
“I aim as high as I can toward the leadership of the state to advance the values and objectives of the right,“ Shaked said on August 12 at the launch of Yamina’s election campaign. — AFP
