Stav Shaffir (Hebrew: סתיו שפיר, born 17 May 1985) is the youngest female Knesset member in Israel's history, outspoken for demanding fiscal oversight of settlement funding and supporting a wide array of social justice-related issues – from affordable housing for young Israelis to the rights of Women of the Wall. Shaffir placed second in the January 13, 2015 primaries of the Labor Party and holds the third place in the internal list (or alternatively the fourth place in the combined Labor-Hatnua list).
Shaffir was one of a small group of leaders of the 2011 Israeli social justice protests, Israel's biggest-ever protest, focusing on housing, public services, income inequality and democracy – and would eventually rise to become spokesperson of the movement.
Shaffir was born in Netanya and is of Iraqi, Lithuanian, and Polish Jewish heritage. At the age of 11, Shaffir and her family moved to Pardesiya, a small town in the Sharon area, where her parents own an accounting firm. After finishing high school, Shaffir worked for a year with underprivileged children in Tiberias as part of a volunteer group affiliated with the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel. She then began her service with the with the Israeli Defense Forces, as a cadet in the flight academy of the Israeli Air Force.After five months, she was transferred to a position as a military journalist for the IDF magazine, Bamahane.[3] Her coverage of IDF activity included Israel's unilateral disengagement plan and the 2006 Lebanon war.
Upon completion of her military service, Shaffir was accepted into the Olive Tree Scholarship Program by the City University of London, a unique initiative to support future leaders who desire to change the status quo of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She studied with a small cohort of Israeli and Palestinian students who were engaged in dialogue across the lines of confrontation and distrust that frame their relations in the Middle East. During her studies in London, Shaffir worked as an intern in the British Parliament as part of the Undergraduate ParliaMentors program and was awarded runner up in the JRS Competition for Student Journalists in 2008 for her piece covering Iraqi refugees in England.Stav Shaffir received a B.A in Sociology and Journalism in 2009.
Shaffir continued her studies in Israel at the Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music in Ramat-HaSharon for a year, and then enrolled in the M.A program at the Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas at Tel Aviv University. During that time, Shaffir volunteered with Dror-Israel running after-school enrichment programs for children from disadvantaged families. For seven years, Shaffir worked as freelance journalist and editor for various publications including National Geographic, the Ha'ir weekly newspaper, Mako Magazine, and the Yedioth Ahronoth[10][11] internet site Xnet where she published the first article to appear in the Israeli media about the 2011 Israeli social justice protests.
Social activism
Shaffir, along with Daphni Leef, Itzik Shmuli and others, was a founder, organizer and unofficial leader of the 2011 Israeli social justice protests in which more than half a million Israelis took to the streets in a series of public demonstrations. Shaffir also became a spokesperson of the movement. Stav Shaffir's televised debate with MK Miri Regev on the television show Erev Hadash. Show on July 17, 2011 catapaulted her to national prominence. In the months to come, Shaffir helped found over 120 tent camps throughout Israel, led hundreds of thousands of Israelis in demonstrationsm including the March of the Million, and lobbied with members of the Knesset to pursue a social justice agenda. In addition to serving as the spokeperson about the protests for the Israeli media, she represented the movement in foreign media outlets. In 2012, Shaffir was a keynote speaker at three national U.S.-based conferences: J-Street together with Israeli writer with Israeli writer Amos Oz, the Jewish Federation of North America's TribeFest and the Personal Democracy Forum.
In February 2012, Shaffir along with fellow tent protesters Alon Lee-Green and Yonatan Levi, founded the Israeli Social Movement in order to provide leadership for the disparate groups compromising the Israeli social justice movement. In August 2012, Shaffir and her colleagues embarked on a cross-country tour from the southern sea port of Eilat to Kiryat Shmona on the Lebanese border, to listen to activists and ordinary citizens regarding their concerns. The group was disbanded when Shaffir announced her intent to run for the Knesset.
Political career[edit]
Shaffir was approached by the Labor Party in May 2012 to join its ranks[22] in preparation for the 2013 general elections held on 22 January 2013. She officially declared her candidacy for the Labor Party list on October 12, 2012.[23]
Shaffir placed 9th (moving up to 8th after Amir Peretz's resignation[25]) as a result of the November 29, 2012 primaries readily securing her a seat in the Knesset following the January 22, 2013 general elections. After the recent January 13, 2015 primaries Shaffir placed second[26][27], and so holds the third place on the internal party list (after party leader Isaac Herzog and Shelly Yachimovich). In the combined Labor-Hatnuah party, Shaffir holds the fourth place due to Hatnuah Leader Tzipi Livni's placement behind Herzog.
Initially elected at age 27, she was the youngest female Knesset member of all time. Shaffir is also the MK with the lowest net worth - a total of only $20,000 – and neither owns an apartment nor a car.[28] She was one of only eight MKS to forgo their 2015 pay raise calling it “distaseful” in light of wage stagnation in the Israeli job market.[29]
Shaffir's landmark accomplishment during her first term was instituting greater financial transparency in the State budget. For the first time in thirty years, the Ministry of Finance agreed to publish budgetary transfers in advance and online so that both Members of Knesset and voters can follow the Committee's cash flow. Previously, the Finance Committee leadership expected members to vote on budgetary transfers in the billions of shekels without proper advance notice nor adequate documentation.
In May 2012, Shaffir joined 10,000 protestors demanding that the proposed 2013 State Budget be made more favorable to the lower and middle classes.[30] She was to soon learn that this was only the first step in creating the “real” budget. Almost immediately after the voted-on, agreed-upon 2013 State budget was passed, the Finance Committee repeatedly pushed through changes that largely benefited West Bank settlements and right wing pet projects and chipped away at social services.
Following the dismissal of Finance Minister Yair Lapid, the Finance Committee, under Prime Minister Netanyahu's leadership, transferred millions of shekels to the settlements despite vociferous objections by Shaffir. She was forcibly removed from the Finance Committee repeatedly for complaining about the lack of clear information about the content of what was being voted on.[38][39]
As an MK, Shaffir never left her roots in the protest movement far behind. She donned a tallit (traditional prayer shawl) and joined Women of the Wall in prayer at the Western Wall in Jerusalem in March 2013. Shaffir and her fellow parliamentarians were initially barred from attending — according to the police, women wearing tallit were a "disturbance of public order" - but their legal status as legislators forced the police to let them pray.[40] She joined the women in solidarity with their equal right to pray, but also for[41] the broader struggle for freedom of religion in Israel — “our freedom to live how we want to live, with our own beliefs and our own personal way of practicing Judaism or other religions.”[42]
A longtime advocate for LGBTQ issues, Shaffir proposed a draft bill in May 2013 that would allow same-sex couples to get government recognition for civil unions. Despite getting wide support within the Labor Party and from individual Knesset members from Likud and Hatnua, Yesh Atid blocked the bill in favor or their own civil unions bill – legislation which has had no traction whatsoever.[43][44] After a Haaretz poll showed support from 70% of Israelis for full and equal rights for the gay community, Shaffir with the help of attorneys and community activists, compiled a list of 12 ways to benefit the LGBTQ community through ministerial regulatory action, sidestepping the need for legislation. These include rules making it easier for same-sex couples to adopt and to enter into surrogacy arrangements.[45]
Shaffir’s message connecting socio-economic issues with the Israeli-Palestinian peace process resonated strongly with activists attending the Fall 2013 J Street conference in Washington, DC. She also spoke to the need for both caution and exploration of non-violent means for Israel to resolve its conflict with Iran.[46] She took a second trip to the U.S. from in Spring 2014 as member of a delegation of female Knesset members studying the role of women in legislatures.[47]
Shaffir with MKs Hilik Bar and Orly Levi-Abekasis launched a lobby for the advancement of fair rent after a report prepared by the Knesset Research and Information Center found that rents across Israel had increased by 49% since 2007. On February 13, 2014, Shaffir proposed the first legislation in Israel’s history to regulate the rental housing market. The Housing Cabinet adopted her proposed “fair rental” law.[48][49]
Shaffir advocated for Israel to adopt a formal asylum policy that distinguishes between refugees and migrants with quotas based on Israel’s capacity for absorption. She supported the Supreme Court’s quashing of the 2012 Law for the Prevention of Infiltration (Amendment no. 3) (temporary order), which mandated an almost automatic three-year detention of ‘infiltrators.’[50] After all, she says, “We are a country based on refugees. My grandmother escaped from Iraq and my grandfather escaped during the Holocaust. It is a country that knows what it means to escape with your life.”
Shaffir was outspoken during the 2014 Operation Protective Shield in Gaza. When it was reported that shelters in the hard hit city of Ashdod, were excluding women from “mens’ only” shelters, Shaffir filed an urgent complaint with the Religious Affairs Ministry, demanding to put an immediate halt to the segregation which was promptly ended.
Shaffir repeatedly advocated for fair compensation for residents of the South of Israel who were most impacted by the war. She objected strongly to various political deals that were proposed under the cover of war, e.g. a Finance Committee proposal that transferred millions to settlements and nothing to the South and the transfer of millions of shekels public transportation, Holocaust survivors, day-care centers and retirees to pay for Operation Protective Shield.
When funds were finally allocated to the south but not transferred, Shaffir wrote a letter to the Finance Committee that was signed by other opposition lawmakers calling for a meeting to address the lack of action by the Finance Committee 73 days after the operation began to approve the transfer of funds to local authorities in the South that were impacted by rocket- fire.
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