After the great success in regards to gender equality in the last Israeli Knesset elections, Israeli authorities are disappointed that only a small number of Israeli women will be serving as mayors. Lizzie Dilharizia and Miriam Feirberg-Ikar are the only two female mayors that were elected to serve the Israeli public.
Rachel Avraham
Miriam Feirberg-Ikar, Netanya's mayor Photo Credit: Moshe Shay, Flash 90
An especially gloomy picture was revealed this morning, with the conclusion of the counting of votes for the municipal elections, after it became clear that only two women were elected to serve as mayors.
The winners, which sorrowfully have turned out to be exceptional in local Israeli politics, are Miriam Feirberg-Ikar of Netanya and Lizzie Dilharizia of Ganei Tikva. For Feirberg-Ikar, winning 72% of the votes is already said to be routine because she has held this senior level position in the municipality since 1998. Her colleague Dilharizia was elected to head the Municipality Council after winning 43.1% of the vote.
Lizzie Dilharizia of Ganei Tikva Photo Credit: Lizzie Dilharizia Campaign
“I still can’t digest this; it is a very great excitement,” Dilharizia stated in a conversation with Israel’s Channel 2 News online. “I worked very hard in recent years and taking part in the community isn’t alien to me. When the results started to emerge, I went to the Municipality Building and opened a bottle of champagne. I returned exhausted and satisfied.”
Dilharizia expressed disappointment however in the low number of women who were successful in winning the recent municipality elections. “It’s amazing that one two women were elected. It’s simply a pity,” she stated this morning. “We have women with many skills and there are people in the country that still have not internalized this.”
“As of today, women very are underrepresented in the Israeli municipalities,” the chairman of the Local Government Center Shlomo Bohbut stated before the results were released. “This year, the highest number of women ran in local municipality elections within the country’s history. I congratulate the candidates on their determination and desire to take part actively in the public sphere.”
