Limor Son Har-Melech
לימור סון הר-מלך‎
Faction represented in the Knesset
2022–Otzma Yehudit
Personal details
Born1979
Jerusalem, Israel
Children10
Residence(s)Shavei Shomron, West Bank

Limor Son Har-Melech (Hebrew: לימור סון הר-מלך, born 1979) is a far-right israeli politician. She has served as a member of the Knesset for the Kahanist[1] Otzma Yehudit party following the 2022 Israeli legislative election.[2]

A former resident of the illegal West Bank settlement of Homesh prior to the 2005 disengagement, Har-Melech co-founded an organization seeking to rebuild the illegal outpost.[3] In 2023, Har-Melech sparked controversy after describing Amiram Ben-Uliel, a convicted terrorist who killed three Palestinian civilians and burned their 18 month-old son, as a "holy righteous man".[4]

Early life and personal biography

Har-Melech was born in Jerusalem in 1979. In 2001, she married her first husband Shuli Har-Melech and moved with him to Homesh, an illegal Israeli outpost in the occupied West Bank, where he was a medic and an ambulance driver, and they had a son together.

In August 2003, during the Second Intifada, while Har-Melech was seven months pregnant with her second child, her husband and she were driving in a car near Ramallah on the West Bank when five gunmen fired upon their vehicle with automatic weapons and the vehicle rolled over. Shuli died instantly, whilst Limor was in critical condition and her daughter was born prematurely by cesarean section several hours later.[5][6] Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a terrorist organization described as the military wing of the Palestinian political party Fatah, claimed responsibility for the attack.[7]

In 2005, Har-Melech and her family, along with the rest of the residents of Homesh, were evicted from their homes due to the Israeli disengagement from Gaza and some West Bank towns, with the illegal settlement being demolished. Har-Melech married her current husband Yehuda,[3] and had a further eight children with him. They moved out of temporary accommodation into a house in the Shavei Shomron settlement after her seventh child.[8]

She was present in the Palestinian town of Huwara after an outbreak of violence by Israelis settlers in February 2023. She called on the government "not to issue condemnations and appeals for calm".[citation needed]

Political career

Har-Melech co-founded the grassroots organization Homesh First, which seeks to re-build the illegal outpost she had lived in until 2005.[3] In the 2022 Israeli legislative election, Har-Melech was chosen for the thirteenth spot on the Religious Zionist Party-Otzma Yehudit list. As the list won fourteen mandates, Har-Melech was successfully elected to the Knesset.[3]

In 2023, Har-Melech introduced legislation to ban the waving of Palestinian flags on Israeli college campuses.[9]

Political views

Har-Melech has echoed accusations that the leadership of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) privileges the safety of Palestinians in the West Bank over settlers. In 2023, she claimed that Yoav Gallant, currently serving as Minister of Defense, "knowingly endangers" settlers and should be replaced in office, and endorsed similar comments by fellow MK Avihai Boaron.[10]

On criminal justice issues, Har-Melech has argued that sentences for Arabs who kill Jews should be harsher than sentences for Jews who kill Arabs. In an interview with Ynet radio, Har-Melech said that a Jew who kills an Arab should receive life imprisonment, while any Arab "who kills a Jew needs to die."[11]

2023 Ben Uliel controversy

Main article: Duma arson attack

In 2023, Har-Melech ignited controversy after defending Amiram Ben Uliel, a terrorist convicted in 2020 of murdering three members of a Palestinian family and burning their 18-month old child, as a "holy righteous man".[2] At a fund-raiser for the convicted terrorist's legal defense, Har-Melech claimed Ben Uliel was innocent. Her comments sparked an "indirect reproach" by the United States Department of State.[4]

Personal life

Har-Melech and her husband Yehuda live in the West Bank settlement of Shavei Shomron.[8] She has ten children.[12]

References

  1. ^ "Kahanist Lawmaker Touts Poll Showing Broad Support for Deporting 'Disloyal' Israelis". Sam Sokol for Haaretz. 29 August 2022. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
  2. ^ a b Sokol, Sam (20 September 2023). "Far-right Israeli Lawmaker Calls Settler Convicted of Murdering Palestinian Family 'Holy Righteous Man'". Haaretz. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d "Who are Itamar Ben-Gvir's fellow party members and what do they believe?". The Jerusalem Post. 2 November 2022. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
  4. ^ a b Magid, Jacob (23 September 2023). "US blasts 'inflammatory rhetoric' after far-right MK hailed Jewish terrorist". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
  5. ^ "Matan Kahana wants to fix Israel's divisions over religion, state". Gush Katif Heritage Center. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
  6. ^ "Life after death". Wales Online. 30 August 2003. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
  7. ^ Toker, Benny (22 July 2015). "'The Last Word on Expelled Towns Yet to be Said'". Israel National News. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
  8. ^ a b Keller-Lynn, Carrie (31 May 2022). "There's no place like Homesh: The West Bank's most politically charged hilltop". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
  9. ^ Keller-Lynn, Carrie. "Bill to ban waving Palestinian flags on campuses temporarily shelved by ministers". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
  10. ^ "Coalition MK echoes claim IDF general favors Palestinians, calls for Gallant's ouster". The Times of Israel. 2 August 2023. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
  11. ^ "Otzma MK: Jew who kills Arab should be jailed, Arab who kills Jew must be executed". The Times of Israel. 9 January 2023. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
  12. ^ Jansezian, Nicole (22 November 2022). "Are the members of the Jewish Power party radicals, activists or ideological diehards?". All Israel News. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
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