Meet the women of the Knesset's Joint List
Out of the Joint List’s 15 members in the Knesset, four are women, and, despite the obstacles they face, they are determined to pursue their agendas in the Knesset.
Women have not fared well in the recently instated Knesset. All the major parties are currently led by men. The number of women in the Knesset has decreased from 35 to 30, and women make up only 25% of the overall elected members of the Knesset.
Yet women in the Arab Joint List have done well: Out of the Joint List’s 15 members, four are women — double the two in the previous Knesset.
The Joint List is made up of four different parties running together as a bloc, and each party has one woman member.
Aida Touma-Sliman, 55, represents Hadash, the Communist Party. She studied psychology and Arabic literature at Haifa University, and was the founder of Women Against Violence, the first Arab feminist group against domestic violence. She also served editor-in-chief of al-Ittihad, the Communist Party’s Arabic-language newspaper.
