Next Knesset could elect record number of women

Russian, French, Anglo candidates advanced.

By GIL HOFFMAN
Israeli workers count ballots cast by Israeli soldiers and civil servants living overseas at the central elections committee building in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem March 18, 2015. (photo credit: AMMAR AWAD / REUTERS)
Israeli workers count ballots cast by Israeli soldiers and civil servants living overseas at the central elections committee building in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem March 18, 2015.
(photo credit: AMMAR AWAD / REUTERS)
If current polls are correct, Israelis will elect a record number of women in the September 17 election, according to a study of recent polls and the lists submitted to the Central Elections Committee by Israel Democracy Institute researcher Ofer Kenig.
Twenty-nine women were elected to the 21st and 22nd Knessets in March 2015 and April 2019. Due to MKs who quit and were replaced, the 21st Knesset reached a record 35 female Knesset members.
But, the 32 or 33 women predicted by the weekend’s polls to enter the next Knesset would be a record high for an Israeli election.
The number of immigrants is also expected to rise, Kenig found. There were only six immigrants from the former Soviet Union in the outgoing Knesset.
Due to Yisrael Beytenu’s rise in the polls, the next Knesset is expected to have nine native Russian speaking immigrants.
As Blue and White is falling in the polls, current MK Gadi Yevarkan – who is 33rd on their list – is not expected to make it, leaving his Blue and White colleague Pnina Tamano-Shata as the only Ethiopian immigrant MK in the next Knesset.
Shas advanced Ethiopian Rabbi Baruch Gezahai to eleventh on its list. He could enter the Knesset if a bill is passed, expanding the current mini-Norwegian Law from one to four ministers and deputies who can quit the Knesset and be replaced by the next candidates on their list.
French immigrant candidate Yossi Tayeb was moved up to the #12 slot on the Shas list. Fellow native Frenchman and former IDF spokesman Olivier Rafowicz was placed 16th in Yisrael Beytenu.
Blue and White moved up Russian immigrant Vladimir Beliak from 51st to 41st on its list.
Labor advanced Ethiopian candidate Itzik Tayim to 24th and Russian immigrant Vladimir Sevardluk to 25th.
The top immigrant candidates from English-speaking countries are Toronto-born MK Sharren Haskel, who is 30th on the Likud list, and Boston-born Otzma Yehudit candidate Baruch Marzel, who is second on the list. Both made Aliyah with their parents as babies.
Candidates who are former American citizens include United Right’s number four candidate Naftali Bennett, who was born in Haifa to immigrants from San Francisco; UTJ MK and 8th candidate Yitzhak Pindrus, who was born in Jerusalem to immigrants from Cleveland and Boston; and Blue and White MK and 12th candidate Chili Tropper, who was born in Jerusalem to parents from New York.
All three renounced their US citizenship when they were elected to the Knesset.
Likud MK Yoav Kisch, who is 24th on the list, gave up his British citizenship when he was elected in 2015. He is a grandson of Brigadier Frederick Hermann Kisch, the highest-ranking Jew ever to serve in the British Army.
Zehut leader Moshe Feiglin renounced the Australian citizenship that he received from his parents, when he was elected in 2013.
US citizens in unrealistic slots on lists submitted Thursday include Chicagoan United Right 23rd candidate Jeremy Saltan and Democratic Union 14th candidate Yair Fink, whose mother is from New York and whose father was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Houston-born, Chicago-raised former Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick, who ran in April with the New Right, is sitting this election out.