Idit Silman
Silman in 2019
Ministerial roles
2022–Minister of Environmental Protection
Faction represented in the Knesset
2019Union of Right-Wing Parties
2021–2022Yamina
2022–2023Likud
Personal details
Born (1980-10-27) 27 October 1980 (age 43)
Rehovot, Israel

Idit Silman (Hebrew: עִידִּית סִילְמָן, born 27 October 1980) is an Israeli politician who currently serves as the Minister of Environmental Protection. Silman previously served as a member of the Knesset for Likud from 2022 to 2023, for Yamina from 2021 to 2022, and for the Union of Right-Wing Parties in 2019.[1] She was the parliamentary whip of the coalition from 2021,[2] until her resignation from the coalition on 6 April 2022, after which she maintained her Knesset seat and shifted the balance of power between coalition and opposition.[3]

Early life

Idit Silman was born in Rehovot to immigrant Moroccan Jewish parents from Morocco,[4][5] and was educated at Ulpana Tzfira and the Wingate Institute.[6] She worked in marketing in the health sector.[7] She is married, and has three children.

Political career

She was an activist with Mafdal since her youth,[8] and continued in the Jewish Home into which Mafdal was merged,[9] where she was chosen for the female spot on the party list for the April 2019 Knesset elections.[10] When the party joined the Union of the Right-Wing Parties alliance, she was placed fifth on its list, going on to enter the Knesset as the alliance won five seats.[11]

Silman was given the eighth slot on the Yamina list (a joint ticket of the New Right, The Jewish Home, and National Union) for the elections to the 22nd Knesset. However Yamina won only seven seats, and Silman lost her seat in the Knesset.[12][13]

Silman left the Jewish Home for the New Right on 15 January 2020,[14] and was placed in the seventh slot on the Yamina list the same day when the alliance was re-established for the 2020 Israeli legislative election.[15]

She was placed in the eighth slot of the Yamina list ahead of the 2021 Israeli legislative election.[16] She became an MK after Alon Davidi resigned from the Yamina list before being sworn in.[17]

On 6 April 2022, Silman resigned from the coalition, causing the governing coalition of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to lose its majority in the Knesset, and raising the possibility of new elections in Israel for the fifth time in four years.[3] Prime Minister Bennett claimed that Silman had been "persecuted for months" by supporters of Likud party leader and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu "at the most horrific level" until she "broke" and left the coalition.[18]

Silman faced allegations that her resignation coincided with an assurance from Benjamin Netanyahu that the tenth place on the Likud list in the upcoming elections would be secured for her and that she would be guaranteed the position of Minister of Health.[19][20][21] However, Silman asserted that her decision to retire was not linked to any such commitment. She referenced the fact that the Minister of Health, Nitzan Horowitz, citing a supreme court decision, instructed hospitals to allow visitors to enter with chametz (leavened bread) during Passover. Possessing chametz during Passover is forbidden under Jewish religious laws.[22] On 2 May, in her first interview since her resignation from the coalition, Silman said that she made the move due to various religion-related actions of the coalition. Specifically, she referenced the upcoming reforms in kashrut-oversight authorities, changes in authorizations to conduct giyur (conversion to Judaism), discussions about creating a section for the non-Orthodox in the Western Wall Plaza, and the Treasury Minister's decision to limit financial support of poor families whose parents neither work, nor engage in studies with the intention of acquiring a profession. This last category is seen by some as a way to coerce Haredim to reduce their religious learning studies and enter the secular world.[23]

Silman resigned from the Knesset on 11 September and was replaced by Orna Starkmann.[24][25] She was later given the 16th spot on the Likud's list ahead of the 2022 election.[26] Following the results Silman returned for an additional term as an MK with Likud winning 32 seats.

On 29 December 2022, Silman was appointed Environmental Protection Minister by Benjamin Netanyahu during the formation of the thirty-seventh government of Israel.[27] She resigned from the Knesset on 7 January 2023 as part of the Norwegian Law.[1]

After the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 she was chased out of a hospital after attempting to visit survivors of the attacks, as both relatives of the injured and staff of the hospital angrily shouted at her, holding the government and their actions, and by extension her, responsible for the political climate that led to the attacks, accusing that they have "ruined" the country of Israel.[28]

References

  1. ^ a b "חברת הכנסת עידית סילמן". Knesset (in Hebrew). Retrieved 12 January 2023.
  2. ^ "New government starts process of taking power after 12 years of Netanyahu". The Times of Israel. 14 June 2021. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  3. ^ a b Ravid, Barak (6 April 2022). "Israeli government on brink of collapse after key lawmaker quits coalition". Axios. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
  4. ^ לקס, עפרה. "עניין אישי והפעם עם עידית סילמן".
  5. ^ Schneider, Tal (21 August 2021). "The political neophyte whipping a Knesset cacophony into coalition harmony". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
  6. ^ ""לכתבה הבאה של דנה וייס": סילמן חוטפת מתחת לחגורה" ["For Dana Weiss' next article": Sillman gets hit below the belt]. Ice (in Hebrew). 1 March 2022. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
  7. ^ Sylvetsky, Rochel (7 April 2019). "Talking to Idit Silman, fifth spot on the United Right's Knesset list". Israel National News. Retrieved 16 April 2019.
  8. ^ "Coalition chair Idit Silman bolts from coalition". Israel National News. 6 April 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
  9. ^ "Idit Silman joins Jewish Home Knesset list". Israel National News. 21 February 2019. Retrieved 16 April 2019.
  10. ^ Harkov, Lahav (22 February 2019). "Female candidate quits Bayit Yehudi over Otzma merger". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 16 April 2019.
  11. ^ "Here's the Full List of Israeli Lawmakers – and Only a Quarter Are Women". Haaretz. 8 April 2019. Retrieved 13 April 2019.
  12. ^ "צפו: החכית לשעבר בפליק פלאק משולש". כיפה (in Hebrew). 12 October 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2023.
  13. ^ Wootliff, Raoul. "21st Knesset, we hardly knew ye. Meet the (almost identical) 22nd". www.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 6 January 2023.
  14. ^ "Idit Silman defects from the Jewish Home to the New Right". Arutz Sheva. 15 January 2020. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  15. ^ "Bennett, Peretz, Smotrich agree to joint run without Ben Gvir". Arutz Sheva. 15 January 2020. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  16. ^ "Israel Election 2021: All the Official Party Lists So Far". Haaretz. 3 February 2021. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  17. ^ Hoffman, Gil (5 April 2021). "Sderot mayor turns down Knesset". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  18. ^ Silkoff, Shira; Joffre, Tzvi (6 April 2022). "Bennett: Bibi activists threatened Silman before she left coalition". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
  19. ^ "N12 - הממשלה מאבדת את הרוב בכנסת - סילמן פורשת: "אינני יכולה..." N12. 6 April 2022. Retrieved 28 January 2024.
  20. ^ "Israel's Ruling Coalition Loses Majority as Whip Steps Down". Haaretz. Retrieved 28 January 2024.
  21. ^ Rubin, Shira; Hendrix, Steve (6 April 2022). "Surprise resignation of lawmaker roils Israel's governing coalition". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 28 January 2024.
  22. ^ "Silman: What bothered me is a minister said to abide by High Court". The Jerusalem Post. 6 April 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
  23. ^ "Edith Silman In An interview with Amit Segal: We Received a Caressing Hug From The Media Investigation Against Shmulik Silman In News 13". Middle East 24 News English. 3 May 2022. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
  24. ^ "בדרך לליכוד: עידית סילמן התפטרה מהכנסת" [On her way to the Likud: Silman resigns from the Knesset]. Srugim (in Hebrew). 11 September 2022. Retrieved 14 September 2022.
  25. ^ Carrie Keller-Lynn (16 September 2022). "Arab-led Joint List splits into 2 factions, shuffling political deck at last minute". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
  26. ^ "הליכוד בהנהגת בנימין נתניהו לראשות הממשלה". Government of Israel.
  27. ^ "Netanyahu hands out additional ministries to Likud MKs; Miri Regev back at transportation". www.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 6 January 2023.
  28. ^ Bower, Edmund (12 October 2023). "'You've ruined this country': Israeli ministers heckled out of hospital". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 13 November 2023.

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