Ministerial anger over exclusion from coronavirus cabinet, lack of women

Netanyahu told him in response that he would be invited to coronavirus cabinet hearings when his ministry was involved in the issue at hand.

By JEREMY SHARON
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem January 26, 2020 (photo credit: REUTERS/DEDI HAYUN)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem January 26, 2020
(photo credit: REUTERS/DEDI HAYUN)
The formation of a slimmed-down coronavirus cabinet on Sunday further increased tensions within the coalition, as several ministers objected to their exclusion from the new panel, while the complete absence of women was widely condemned.
The government decided to slim down the size of the coronavirus cabinet to make its decision-making process more efficient, but the result upset ministers who were excluded, including some from the Likud.
Housing and Construction Minister Ya’acov Litzman, who previously served as the health minister and was on the previous coronavirus cabinet, reportedly stormed out of the full cabinet meeting Sunday morning, saying that his nearly 10 years of experience leading the Health Ministry would have been an important resource for the coronavirus cabinet.
Litzman voted against the establishment of the new cabinet.
Education Minister Yoav Gallant of the Likud Party expressed strong opposition to his exclusion from the new coronavirus cabinet, with Channel 12 reporting that he said during Sunday morning’s meeting he had “several times received information on policies affecting his ministry through the media” instead of through government channels.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told him in response that he would be invited to coronavirus cabinet hearings when his ministry was involved in the issue at hand.
Environmental Protection Minister Gila Gamliel, also of the Likud, described the new coronavirus cabinet as “pathetic,” saying the inclusion of the science and technology minister at the expense of the education minister was “illogical.”
Social Equality Minister and Minorities Minister Meirav Cohen was also removed from the coronavirus cabinet, and questioned Netanyahu on why there were now no women on the body.
According to multiple reports, Netanyahu responded derisively, saying, “I also sometimes ask in the middle of the night why traffic lights are red. There are many things which aren’t logical,” adding that the cabinet needed to have the correct ratio of ministers from the coalition parties, meaning that Cohen could not be included.
Several women’s rights groups spoke out angrily against the exclusion of women from the cabinet, and against Netanyahu’s comments.
Anita Friedman, chairwoman of the Women’s International Zionist Organization, said that government should be concerned it has put up a “‘red light” to equal representation for women in the decision making centers,” and should act to rectify the situation immediately.
“While women lead the fight against the epidemic in the majority of Western countries, Israel is excluding women from the junctures of policy making in one of the worse humanitarian crises that humanity has known,” Friedman said, and called on the prime minister to include female ministers in the cabinet.
Opposition leader MK Yair Lapid also denounced the exclusion of women from the panel, saying derisively that “The biggest government in the history of the country and they did not put one woman [in the coronavirus cabinet.] Disconnected chauvinists.”
The Na’amat women’s rights group decried the removal of the two women ministers from the new cabinet, Transport Minister Miri Regev and Cohen, and the absence of any women at all on the slimmed-down cabinet.
“I recommend to the prime minister and the alternate prime minister, who always compare our situation to the rest of the world, to look at the common denominator of countries that have successfully subdued the epidemic – in all of them, women are in the decision-making elite,” Na’amat said in a statement to the press.
The new coronavirus cabinet now comprises Netanyahu, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein, Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz, Finance Minister Israel Katz, Public Security Minister Amir Ohana, Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, Science and Technology Minister Izhar Shay, Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn, Economy Minister Amir Peretz and Interior Minister Arye Deri.
During Sunday’s meeting, the government also established a ministerial committee for declaring a coronavirus restricted area, which consists of the same ministers as on the coronavirus cabinet