Shulamit Aloni

Shulamit Aloni (Hebrew: שולמית אלוני‎; November 29, 1928 – January 24, 2014) was an Israeli politician. She founded the Ratz party, was leader of the Meretz party, and served as Minister of Education from 1992 to 1993. In 2000, she won the Israel Prize.

Biography

Shulamit Adler (later Aloni) was born in Tel Aviv. Her mother was a seamstress and her father was a carpenter, both descended from Polish Jewish rabbinical families. She was sent to boarding school during World War II while her parents served in the British Army. As a youth she was a member of the Hashomer Hatzair socialist Zionist youth movement and the Palmach. During the 1948 Israeli War of Independence she was involved in military struggles for the Old City of Jerusalem and was captured by Jordanian forces.

Following the establishment of the state of Israel, Aloni worked with child refugees and helped establish a school for immigrant children. She taught school while studying law.

In 1952 she married Reuven Aloni (founder of Israel Lands Administration), moved to Kfar Shmaryahu, and they had three sons: Dror Aloni - Mayor of Kfar Shmaryahu, former head of Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium, Nimrod Aloni - education philosopher, and Udi Aloni - Film director.

Aloni joined Mapai in 1959. She also worked as an attorney and hosted a radio show Outside Working Hours that dealt with human rights and women's rights. She also wrote columns for several newspapers.

Reuven Aloni died in 1988. She died at the age of 85 on January 24, 2014.

Political career

In 1965 Aloni was first elected to the Knesset on the list of the Alignment (a merger of Mapai and Ahdut HaAvoda), and subsequently founded the Israel Consumers Council, which she chaired for four years.

She left the Alignment in 1973 and established Ratz (Citizens Rights Movement), a party advocating electoral reform, separation of religion and state and human rights. The party won three Knesset mandates in the 1973 elections. Ratz initially joined the Alignment-led government with Aloni as minister without portfolio but she resigned immediately to protest the appointment to cabinet of Yitzhak Rafael. Ratz briefly became Ya'ad – Civil Rights Movement when independent MK Aryeh Eliav joined the faction, but returned to its original status soon after.

Throughout the 1970s Aloni attempted to create a dialogue with Palestinians in hopes of achieving a lasting peace settlement. During the 1982 Lebanon War she established the "International Center for Peace in the Middle East". In 1984, Ratz aligned withPeace Now and the Left Camp of Israel to increase its size in the Knesset to five mandates. In 1992, she led Ratz into a coalition with Shinui and Mapam to form the new Meretz party, which won 12 seats under her leadership in the elections that year.

Aloni became Minister of Education under Yitzhak Rabin but was forced to resign after a year due to her outspoken statements on matters of religion. As Education Minister, she also criticized organized tours by Israeli high school pupils to Holocaustconcentration camps on grounds that such visits were turning Israeli youth into aggressive, nationalistic xenophobes, claiming that students "march with unfurled flags, as if they've come to conquer Poland". She was reappointed Minister of Communications and Science and Culture and served until 1996 when she retired from party politics.

Political activism

Aloni is on the board of the Yesh Din organization, which was established in March 2005, and it is "comprised of volunteers who have organized to oppose the continuing violation of Palestinian human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory".

Aloni defended U.S. President Jimmy Carter's use of the word "apartheid" in the title of his book, Palestine Peace Not Apartheid. Later, Aloni said, "I hate to cover up things that should be open to the Sun."

Views and opinions

In a 2002 interview with American journalist Amy Goodman, Aloni said that charges of antisemitism are used to suppress criticism of Israel.

Awards

• In 1998, Aloni received a special lifetime award of the Emil Grunzweig Human Rights Award by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.
• In 2000, she received the Israel Prize, for her lifetime achievements and special contribution to society and the State of Israel.

In 2005, she was voted the 57th-greatest Israeli of all time, in a poll by the Israeli news website Ynet to determine whom the general public considered the 200 Greatest Israelis.

Published work

• Democracy in Shackles (Demokratia be'azikim), Am Oved (Hebrew)