At a UN event marking 30 years since the Beijing Declaration, Israeli Minister for Women’s Empowerment May Golan fiercely condemned the organization’s silence on brutal violence against women in Israel and beyond, calling out its absurd hypocrisy.

May Golan’s speech at the UN . Several countries left the room refusing to listen to him. pic.twitter.com/zgISHBBrws

— rer14 ️ (@basher1822) March 12, 2025

The post WATCH: ‘From the river to the sea – Jewish women will be free,’ declares Israeli minister at UN appeared first on World Israel News.

The emendation of the Basic Law: The Knesset is a legislative answer to Supreme Court rulings allowing extremist Arabs to run. 

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The Knesset passed the preliminary reading of an amendment to a Basic Law Wednesday that widens the definition of who is a terror supporter so that extremists can be more easily banned from running for parliament.

The new grounds for disqualification to be embedded in Basic Law: The Knesset include expressing support for an individual terrorist, contrary to the existing law that only speaks of support for a terrorist organization.

A few statements will now be enough, whereas before it was necessary to have a “critical mass” of statements or actions exhibiting approval or sympathy for nationalist crimes.

In addition, a party of terror sympathizers within a combined list will no longer be protected by its fellow factions that do not express such sentiments.

Finally, confirmation of the Knesset Elections Committee’s disqualification will not require Supreme Court approval as has been the case until now, although it will be able to hear appeals.

Coalition head Ophir Katz authored the changes after years of the Supreme Court overruling the Committee’s decisions to disallow certain Arab Israeli lists or individuals due to their support of Palestinian terrorism.

The bill passed 61-35, but not before an uproar had ensued in the plenum when Minister of Social Equality and the Advancement of the Status of Women May Golan presented the government’s support for Katz’s private bill.

She called out the Arab legislators in general for being “agents of our enemies” and “Palestinian collaborators,” and quoted individual MKs’ past statements that would disqualify them once the amendment passes into law.

These included Hadash MK Aida Touma-Suleiman’s saying that she would not call Hamas a terror organization, and her party leader, Ayman Odeh, praising longtime Hezbollah terror chief Hassan Nasrallah as a “model of self-sacrifice” after the IDF assassinated him in his Beirut bunker several weeks ago.

Golan was called to order several times by the acting speaker of the Knesset for calling MKs insulting names from the podium, and he eventually had her removed from the hall by Knesset ushers.

All except one member of Yesh Atid voted against the bill, with party head Yair Lapid attacking it as a “racist” law “that says ‘We lost ten seats on October 7 so we’ll use the Knesset to subtract ten seats in our favor…. The real name of the law is the ‘Law for the Abolition of the Opposition.’”

Katz expressed satisfaction over his bill’s passing its first legislative hurdle.

“There is no other country in the world that would allow terror supporters to act as members of Parliament, and I say to the Supreme Court judges, the nation is not taking this anymore,” he said. “Do you think these decisions make you more enlightened than us? More liberal? More advanced? You are not. No more awards for terrorism, that will change from now on.”

The bill will now go to committee to be refined before returning for its second and third readings.

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Minister May Golan excoriates silence of feminist groups after Israeli women and girls raped and abducted to Gaza.

The post WATCH: Israeli minister blasts feminists’ silence over attacks on Israeli women appeared first on World Israel News.

May Golan, Israeli minister for the Advancement of the Status of Women, and her 76-year-old mother were attacked verbally and physically by a mob of anti-judicial reform protesters on Monday at Ben Gurion Airport while sitting at a restaurant.

Golan, 37, protected her mother with her body from two anarchists who cursed, screamed and threatened, her Twitter post says.

Field security arrived at the scene, and the threatening situation ended when half of the people at the terminal stood up and applauded the minister’s mother, who refused to be bullied into leaving.

The officer on duty reportedly injured his hand during the violence.

לאיזה עוד שפל וריקבון יגיעו אותם אנרכיסטים?! לתקוף מילולית ופיזית את אמא שלי בת ה-76 זה קו אדום כהה ולכן נאלצתי להגן עליה בגופי!

הנחמה היחידה מהאירוע המביש הזה היא מחיאות הכפיים שקיבלתי מעשרות הנוסעים שצפו במתרחש וגם הזדעזעו ועודדו אותי להמשיך ולשבת במקום בו אני ואימי אכלנו. אף… https://t.co/ENPDDyuPch

— May Golan מאי גולן (@GolanMay) August 7, 2023

The post ANARCHY: Israeli minister, elderly mother threatened by anti-government protesters appeared first on World Israel News.

Likud minister May Golan also claimed that she was attacked by protesters wielding wooden poles and threatening her.

By World Israel News Staff

An anti-government protester spat on Likud MK Ofir Katz at a conference in the northern Israeli city of Afula, before threatening to put Katz “in front of a firing squad,” the Arutz 7 news site reported on Sunday.

This incident prompted a police complaint.

Likud minister May Golan also arrived in Afula, under heavy security. Golan claimed that she was attacked by protesters wielding wooden poles and threatening her. In response, Golan stepped outside, waving a Likud flag and shouting, “Am Yisrael Chai” (the people of Israel live).

On the other side of the coin, the Shin Bet security agency has expressed growing concern over the escalating threats directed at Supreme Court President Esther Hayut and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, Channel 13 reported.

The Shin Bet’s situational assessment links the surge in incitement cases to comments made by ministers and coalition members against the judiciary and legal institutions.

Citing high-ranking law enforcement sources, the report warns, “The day is not far when blood may be shed.” Rather than working to deescalate the situation, ministers and coalition members are intensifying it with extreme and dangerous remarks, the report said.

The post ‘We’ll put you in front of a firing squad’: Left-wing protesters attack Israeli lawmakers appeared first on World Israel News.

Fearing disruption and protests, numerous coalition lawmakers announced they will not attend this year’s solemn Memorial Day events.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

Memorial Day in Israel is traditionally a somber occasion. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis gather in military cemeteries across the country to commemorate soldiers who have fallen in Israel’s wars and military operations.

But this year, numerous government ministers and MKs have declined to participate in the ceremonies, citing concerns that their presence may spark protests from bereaved families who are vehemently opposed to judicial reform.

Some families have demanded that lawmakers who did not serve in the IDF not attend ceremonies. They’ve also argued that politicians who criticized reservists for their refusal to serve, as part of a protest against the reforms, should be excluded from official events.

‘Politicization’ is threatening us: Likud minister

It appears that lawmakers are listening to these demands, as all politicians from the United Torah Judaism (UJT) party – an ultra-Orthodox group whose members eschew military service in favor of study in yeshivas – will skip this year’s Memorial Day events.

Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf (UTJ) said in a statement that he was told his presence at a military cemetery in Kiryat Gat might “cause discomfort” to grieving families.

“This is not true, but I would prefer not to hurt their feelings,” Goldknopf said. “I do not, God forbid, want to act as a catalyst for disrupting this special and meaningful day.”

His party mate, Ya’akov Tessler, also announced he would skip a Memorial Day event. Shas MK Haim Biton, who did not serve in the army, said he was dropping out of a ceremony in Rehovot.

Information Minister Galit Distel Atbaryan (Likud) said she would not attend a ceremony in Ness Ziona due to opposition from bereaved families.

The families reportedly objected to her presence because she said she “despised” reservist pilots who threatened not to serve because they were opposed to the overhaul of the judicial system. She later apologized for her comments.

“The fact that a person like me can no longer come to the cemetery on Memorial Day is further evidence of the politicization of everything, a politicization that is slowly but surely sawing the branch we all sit on,” Distel Atbaryan wrote on Twitter.

She added that she “bows” her head in front of the bereaved families and respects their wishes.

Likud MK May Golan said she would not attend an event where she was previously scheduled to appear, citing logistical issues, although her announcement came shortly after public criticism regarding her allegedly fraudulent exemption from the army.

Golan, who is secular, claimed to be religious in order to avoid army service. In a lengthy statement, she explained that she was born into an impoverished family and dropped out of school at age 15 in order to work, and that she could not serve in the army because she was the sole breadwinner in her household.

At the end of the statement, Golan added she had been exploring her religious observance just before her recruitment, implying that she had been genuinely religious when she received the exemption.

Opposition MK: Government is legal, respect is paramount

MK Matan Kahana of the National Unity party told Israel National News that he was opposed to the exclusion of elected government officials in the ceremonies.

“I think these ceremonies should be statesmanlike. For 74 years the ministers of Israel have honored the fallen in the official ceremonies in the military cemeteries and I think that’s how it should be,” Kahana said.

“I think this day should be a day in which all the political debates are left out and I hope it will pass with the respect it deserves.”

The lawmaker added that respect for the democratic process and officials who were chosen by the majority of citizens is critical.

“Each of these ministers, if he had come to a cemetery, should have been respected as a representative of the government of Israel. We have one government, a government that was elected in legal elections, established by law,” Kahana said.

“Whether it fulfills its role well or not is a matter of opinion, but in the end we only have one government, even the [ultra-Orthodox] ministers and those who did not serve in the army are ministers in the Israeli government and they should be respected as such.”

Are bereaved families a monolith?

One issue that hasn’t been widely discussed in Hebrew-language media reports is that many of the families of fallen soldiers voted for the current coalition and are not opposed to the presence of their elected officials at the ceremonies.

Earlier in April, members of the Choosing Life NGO, an umbrella group representing the bereaved families of IDF soldiers killed in the line of duty and civilians murdered in terror attacks, met with President Isaac Herzog and expressed their support for judicial reform.

The families told Herzog that changes to Israel’s judicial system are crucial for ensuring national security and that the reform could serve as a “great opportunity” for preventing future terror attacks.

It’s not clear who is making the demands regarding the exclusion of specific ministers, as bereaved families hold differing political views. The umbrella groups representing these families have only said that politics should be left out of the ceremonies but have not called for particular lawmakers not to attend events in military cemeteries.

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The decision came after a backlash from left-wing American Jews.

By JNS

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has nixed his decision to appoint fellow Likud lawmaker May Golan as consul general in New York following a backlash among liberal American Jews.

Netanyahu on Thursday tapped Golan for the position, widely considered Israel’s third-most senior diplomatic position in the United States after the ambassadorships to Washington and the United Nations.

The move drew condemnation from many left-leaning Jews and prompted the U.S. State Department to weigh in on past comments made by the firebrand Golan.

“Broadly, we would condemn such kind of rhetoric and believe that such kind of language is also particularly damaging when it’s amplified in leadership positions,” said State Department spokesman Vedant Patel.

Golan first entered the public eye as a campaigner against African asylum seekers. She is known for her staunchly right-wing ideology and previously designated herself “the mother of politically incorrect.”

She had responded positively to being chosen for the position.

“I am very flattered to be considered for the post of Israel’s consul general in N.Y. I want to assure everyone that if I will be appointed, I will represent 100% the mainstream policies of PM Netanyahu and the Likud Party to which I belong,” she wrote on Twitter.

“I am completely committed to the unity of the Jewish people, and that is the exact policy that I will follow. If appointed, I will work with the leaders of all the Jewish organizations as part of the effort to strengthen the great partnership between Israel and the American Jewish communities,” she added.

Officials in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office concluded that her appointment was no longer feasible.

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Netanyahu hoped to disperse Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s supporters and associates, who include May, within the party.

By World Israel News Staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is planning to deploy a controversial lawmaker from his Likud party to replace Asaf Zamir as Israel’s consul general in New York, who was ousted after declaring his intentions to “fight” the government’s plan for judicial reform.

Initially, May Golan had been promised a ministerial appointment over the Advancement of Women’s Status, but the Knesset vote on Wednesday was canceled at the last minute.

Netanyahu’s office confirmed on Thursday Golan had been offered the consul general post, citing “her excellent communication skills in English.”

Golan later wrote that she was “flattered” at the consideration of the post, and responding to naysayers, added “I want to assure everyone that if I will be appointed, I will represent 100% the mainstream policies of PM Netanyahu and the Likud party to which I belong.”

Israeli media reports said Netanyahu hoped to disperse Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s supporters and associates, who include May, within the party, over fears that he will not be able to meet all of the Levin’s demands regarding the judicial reform legislation, which has been postponed until late May.

The statement from Netanyahu’s office denied the reports. “Contrary to the publication, this has nothing to do with Minister Levin. There is no one the Prime Minister values and trusts more [than Levin].”

Several former diplomats have warned against the proposed appointment, saying that the consul general posting is one of the most influential diplomatic postings and Golan, who is vocally right-wing, could cause major damage to relations between U.S. Jews and Israel.

“The Consul General in NYC must be a top notch diplomat,” tweeted former Israeli ambassador to India Daniel Carmon. “No party politics can justify such a nomination.”

Former U.S. ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk wrote that if Golan ends up being consul general “will be seen by the American Jewish community as a sign of utmost disrespect.”

Golan was charged with racism over her campaign to send illegal migrants back to Africa.

She accused former prime minister Naftali Bennett of being under the thumb of “the actual prime minister, [Islamist Raam party head] Mansour Abbas.”

She called herself “the mother of politically incorrect” in an interview with Israel Hayom.

Zamir, who was appointed by then-foreign minister Yair Lapid, last month announced that he was resigning from the consul general post so that he could “fight for Israel’s future,” as he opposed the government’s planned judicial reforms.

Zamir had already been summoned to Jerusalem the week before for speaking against the reforms at a fundraising event in New York.

After Zamir did not immediately step down, Foreign Minister Eli Cohen fired him.

“I decided to fire him immediately [because] a diplomat who takes a political side cannot represent the State of Israel for even one day. Good luck in the future,” Cohen said at the time.

Golan said she was “completely committed to the unity of the Jewish people, and that is the exact policy that I will follow.”

If appointed, she pledged to “work with the leaders of all the Jewish organizations – as part of the effort to strengthen the great partnership between Israel and the American Jewish communities.”

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Despite agreeing to change in coalition agreement, Netanyahu says anti-discrimination law won’t be adjusted; Likud source says chances of law being changed are “miniscule.”

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

A clause within the Religious Zionism party’s coalition agreement proposing a change to an anti-discrimination law has sparked widespread controversy in Israel, with Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu expressing his opposition to the amendment.

Israel’s current anti-discrimination law, which was passed in 2000, makes it illegal for business owners to deny services to the public based on their actual or perceived religion, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, and marital status.

What is the proposed change to the law?

The Religious Zionism party wants to create a religious exemption to the policy, so that business owners are not forced to act in a manner contrary to their religious beliefs or risk facing steep fines and legal consequences.

The change sought by the Religious Zionism party is meant to ensure that the proprietors of small businesses are not punished for abiding by their religious principles.

The amendment specifically states that business owners can refuse service only if there is a reasonable alternative nearby, meaning that if a business is the only one of its kind in the area, it will not be able to deny service to the public.

Netanyahu agreed to the amendment to the law as part of his Likud party’s coalition deal with Religious Zionism, though recent comments from the leader draw into his question his willingness to allow the change to occur.

Netanyahu: ‘I’ll protect LGBT community’

A statement from Religious Zionism MK Orit Strook implied that her party would like to take the change to the anti-discrimination law a step further and include medical professionals within a protected category of people who should not be forced to provide services that are incompatible with their religious beliefs.

“If a doctor is asked to give any type of treatment to someone that violates his religious faith, if there is another doctor who can do it then you can’t force them to provide treatment,” Strook said in an interview with the KAN radio station on Sunday afternoon.

“Anti-discrimination laws are just and right when they create a just, equal, open and inclusive society,” she added.

She specifically mentioned the policy in the context of a religious doctor being forced to provide fertility treatments to an unmarried woman, saying that the doctor who opposed the procedure should be allowed to request another practicioner to do it.

But LGBT advocates falsely claimed that Strook had said doctors can deny treatment to LGBT patients – an allegation that she publicly denied. Netanyahu released a blistering statement slamming Strook for her comments.

“MK Orit Strook’s words are unacceptable to me and my colleagues in Likud,” Netanyahu said in a statement several hours after the radio interview aired.

“The coalition agreements do not allow for discrimination against LGBT people or for harming the right of any citizen in Israel to receive service. Likud will guarantee that there will be no harm to LGBT people or any Israeli citizen.

“Under my tenure, LGBT people cannot be discriminated against or the rights of Israeli citizens be harmed. This has not happened in my 15 years as Prime Minister and it will not happen now,” he added.

Tuvia Smotrich, the brother of Religious Zionism Chair Betzalel Smotrich, blasted Netanyahu for his remarks.

“You would never have dared to come out against Haredim [ultra-Orthodox Jews] in this manner. It’s a shame that instead of outside attacks strengthening the partnership, they weaken it,” he wrote on Twitter.

Why does Religious Zionism want to change the law?

Questions about the application of the anti-discrimination law began after a high-profile legal battle in 2020, which saw an LGBT advocacy group demand that a Beersheba print shop produce flyers promoting LGBT material.

The print shop owners, who are observant Orthodox Jews, declined the request. The LGBT group sued the print shop and won, with a judge ordering the small business to pay a staggering 50,000 shekels ($14,000) in fines, as well as the LGBT group’s legal expenses.

Smotrich, then transportation minister, called the ruling “outrageous” and “secular coercion,” bemoaning the fact that the court was “forcing a religious and mitzvah-keeping man to act against his belief at his private business.”

“If in the State of Israel a religious Jew cannot run a business according to his lifestyle, [then] where can he?” said Moshe Yado, the attorney who represented the print shop, shortly after the verdict was made public.

“Every religious Jew knows that the people of Israel have managed to survive thousands of years thanks to the Torah teachings of Israel. The court has forgotten this or perhaps never learned this lesson.”

Will the law actually be changed?

Media attention around the change to anti-discrimination law reached a fever pitch on Monday, as members of the Likud backed Netanyahu’s statement condemning Strook.

“As stated by the incoming Prime Minister, the words of MK Orit Strook are not acceptable to Likud members in general and to me in particular,” MK Miri Regev of the Likud party told Hebrew-language news site Mako.

“As Netanyahu emphasized, the coalition agreements do not allow LGBT people to be discriminated against or to harm their rights to receive services as any citizen in Israel.”

A religious exemption to the anti-discrimination law “won’t happen,” MK Tali Gottlieb, a freshman Likud lawmaker, told Mako.

“We will not give a hand to the violation of human rights generally speaking, and in this case, particularly towards the LGBT community. As Netanyahu said, there will be no violation of the rights of LGBT people. There is nothing unclear about that.”

Likud MK May Golan sniped that she “didn’t remember that Orit Strook is a doctor,” adding that “everyone should stick with their area of expertise and deal with what [legislation] they’re going to promote, instead of spreading chizbets.”

Chizbet is an Arabic slang word meaning horror stories.

A source from within the Likud party told left-wing Hebrew language outlet Haaretz that the chances of change to the law are “minuscule.”

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Likud MK May Golan discusses the uptick in terror attacks and the nation-state law with ILTV.

The post WATCH: What must the govt do to end Israel’s wave of terror? appeared first on World Israel News.

Hundreds attend rally after police remove anti-Netanyahu demonstrators to prevent clash.

By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

Supporters of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a rally Thursday evening near his official residence in Jerusalem that has been the site of large anti-Netanyahu demonstrations, Walla News reported Friday.

Some 400 people gathered to back the embattled leader who has seen a drop in public support over the past several months.

The supporters carried Israeli flags and posters of Netanyahu with the slogans “The protector of Israel,” “The people rely on Netanyahu,” and “We’re with you,” among others

Organizers also showed a video of statements by anti-Netanyahu protesters, including death threats against the prime minister.

Likud Knesset member May Golan addressed the supporters, slamming Netanyahu’s opponents for trying to topple the government.

“There are people who are protesting on the other side. They are not protesting economic distress or the corona. It is to incite, divide and overthrow the prime minister,” Golan said.

After the rally, Golan tweeted about her impression that Netanyahu’s opponents were dividing the nation.

“On one side, the right[-wing] was full of love for the people of Israel and the land of Israel, and the other side was full of hatred. Hatred for the prime minister, his family, the Likud, the right and the entire national camp,” May tweeted.

“And I wonder: It’s allowed not to agree, to criticize and to disagree, but why hate, incite and divide? In the end, are we not one people?” Golan said.

Before the rally, police forcibly removed an anti-Netanyahu protest after demonstrators refused to evacuate. Police said the Netanyahu supporters had applied for a permit to demonstrate in the location and that there were no other requests for permission, as is required under Israeli law.

The anti-Netanyahu protestors were asked to leave temporarily until the pro-Netanyahu rally had finished in order to keep a separation and prevent friction between the two sides.

Several of those opposing Netanyahu refused to leave. Police arrested four people for refusing to obey orders.

The “Black Flags” group that organizes the anti-Netanyahu protests called the police action “part of Netanyahu’s election campaign.”

“The State of Israel is in the final stages of democracy as a democracy. This is our last chance to go out and fight before we turn into Belarus and Turkey,” the Black Flags statement added.

Police rejected the claim, saying, “We will continue to allow the protests to take place while maintaining the law.”

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Some took issue with Golan’s flattering remarks on Netanyahu’s 70th birthday.

By World Israel News Staff

Mai Golan, a former Knesset member in the last parliament, caused a social media storm when she posted a video saying that young people will abandon Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t continue to lead it.

The video was shot on a cellphone during the prime minister’s 70th birthday. Golan stands beside Netanyahu, who sits at his desk with a plastic plate and some food, and tells him that the young people she represents tell her they will leave Israel if Netanyahu doesn’t stand at the head of the government.

“I wanted to tell you, as someone who represents the young and goes around a lot in Israel and in the world meeting many young Jews, and given the present situation, I wanted very much to tell you now: Young people say to me that they don’t see their future in this state and they don’t see a future for their children in this state if you don’t continue to lead the country,” she said.

“I say in the name of all the young that I represent that love and admire you. You don’t have any idea how many we’re talking about around the world. We hope with God’s help that you’ll continue to lead and this birthday will be a blessing not only for you but for the whole nation of Israel and the young,” she added.

Yediot Ahronot said the prime minister looked embarrassed but shook Golan’s hand, kissed her on the cheeks and thanked her.

Yediot reported that Golan’s video led to criticism from some quarters. But Golan brushed off the negative comments about her flattering remarks. She designated the criticism as “the best of the spirit of hate in the left-wing camp.”

“Not Twitter, not Facebook, nor any kind of ‘talkback’ – only the citizens of the State of Israel that stop me on every street corner and thank me with tears, those are the ones that matter to me. I’m proud of every single word that I said to PM Netanyahu.”

Golan was ranked 34th on the Likud list following the September 17 elections, putting her outside the Knesset.

מאי גולן לנתניהו: אם לא תמשיך להיות רה”מ – צעירים רבים ירדו מהארץ

(מתוך עמוד הפייסבוק של מאי גולן) pic.twitter.com/MRm2gkAdmE

— מעריב אונליין (@MaarivOnline) October 26, 2019

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