Merav Michaeli
Member of Israeli Knesset and Chairwoman of the Zionist Faction
© Ron Kedmi
Merav Michaeli is used to asking hard questions. The Zionist Union MK has only been involved in Israeli politics since 2013, but that handful of years in public service has been more than enough time for her to earn the label of “feminist firebrand” from The New York Times and a devoted, at times ecstatic, following among women’s rights activists for her hardline stance against traditional matrimony.
A former journalist and television documentary producer, Michaeli is perhaps the most visible and vocal of all feminists in modern-day Israel. While most well-known for her unabashed opinion that marriage should be absolved until the day that men and women have absolute equality, her track record in the Israeli Knesset is lined with dozens of smaller, tangible victories that have progressed the status of women in Israel.
She helped pass the preliminary hearing of the law for criminalizing the act of purchasing prostitution (a major shift from traditional legislative tactics of criminalizing the prostitutes themselves), and – for the first time in Israeli history – she and her colleague Shuli Mualem (MK Jewish Home) pushed through legislation that guarantees free legal representation to Israeli victims of sexual assault.
There is still a long road ahead, however. “We need equal representation – a minimum of 40% representation for each sex in parliament and in government, and, of course, in local authorities,” Michaeli told Time Out. Israel, she added, is neither lagging nor leading in this arena.
“[In terms of equality, Israel ranks] somewhere in the middle in the western world,” she says. “On the one hand, we have our unique challenges and things that prevent us from advancing even further but on the other hand, Israel has an extremely active and vibrant feminist discourse which guarantees that things will get better.”
Michaeli’s Zionist Union Party was formed in 2014 in a bid — eventually unsuccessful — to push longtime prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu from power. At its head sits Tzipi Livni, another firebrand female figure in Israeli politics, and at its core is a commitment to focusing less on the pipe dream of lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace and focusing more on the pressing domestic issues that affect ordinary Israeli citizens’ lives.
But Michaeli, in her trademark fashion, does not toe a line simply for the sake of following protocol. She has been openly critical of Netanyahu’s policies and she has said repeatedly that her Zionism is rooted in the idea that the country she lives in and deeply loves can, and must, take a hard look in the mirror and become better.
For now, however, her plate is full with projects that focus on Israeli women, including landmark legislation that she hopes will put a stop once and for all to workplace bullying. Asked if there is a primary cause she is focused on, Michaeli demurs. “As my great friend and teacher Katherine McKinnon says, ‘there is no lynch pin,’ she says. “There is not one ‘biggest challenge’ that will achieve equality for women. We have to constantly battle on multiple fronts.”