Tzipi Hotovely

Tzipi Hotovely (Hebrew: צִיפִי חוֹטוֹבֵלִי‎, born 2 December 1978) is an Israeli former politician.[1] She served as Minister of Diaspora Affairs, Minister of Settlement Affairs and as a member of the Knesset for the Likud.

Her Excellency

Tzipi Hotovely
ציפי חוטובלי
Hotovely in 2017
Ambassador of Israel to the United Kingdom
Assumed office
August 2020
PresidentReuven Rivlin
Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu
Preceded byMark Regev
Personal details
Born (1978-12-02) December 2, 1978
Rehovot, Israel
CitizenshipIsrael
Political partyLikud
Children3
Alma materTel Aviv University
Bar Ilan University
OccupationJournalist, Politician, Lawyer, Diplomat

Hotovely is a doctoral student at the Faculty of Law in Tel Aviv University. She practises Orthodox Judaism, and is a self-described "religious right-winger".[2] In 2009, she was the 18th Knesset's youngest member. She chaired the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women in the 18th Knesset, before joining the government at the beginning of the 19th Knesset in 2013.[3]

Hotovely has been nominated by the Israeli government to be the next Ambassador of Israel to the United Kingdom when Mark Regev steps down from the role in summer 2020.[4]

Biography

Hotovely was born and raised in Rehovot, Israel, to a religious Jewish family. Her parents, Gabriel and Roziko Hotovely, immigrated to Israel from the Georgian SSR prior to her birth. Her political career has been a source of pride in Israel's Georgian-Jewish community.[5] Hotovely graduated from the Bnei Akiva ulpanit in Tel Aviv. She then served two years of Sherut Leumi, an alternative form of national service to military service available to religious women, where she was placed as a tour guide in Beit HaRav Kook museum in Jerusalem and as a Jewish Agency for Israel representative in Atlanta.

She completed her bachelor's and master's degrees in law at Bar-Ilan University, graduating with honors. Upon completion of her academic studies, she interned in the law office of Ram Caspi in Tel Aviv, specializing in corporate law, and became a certified lawyer in 2003. Between 2003 and 2005, she served as the editor of Bar-Ilan's Journal of Law, and later began her studies for a doctorate at Tel Aviv University. During her studies, she was active in the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS), and represented the organization at a student conference in South Africa. She was also the representative of the World Bnei Akiva movement in Paris. She also studied at the Bruria Seminary in Jerusalem, and the Girl's Seminary at Bar-Ilan University.

Media career

In 2006, Hotovely joined the panel of the political discussion program Moetzet HaHahamim (Council of the Wise) on Channel 10, hosted by Dan Margalit. Among the panel's members were journalists Amnon Dankner, Tommy Lapid, Ari Shavit, and Gideon Levy. Hotovely represented the right wing on the panel, and was among the critics of the Olmert government following the 2006 Lebanon War. She supported the reserve soldiers' demonstrations, and called on the country's leadership to resign.

Also in 2006, she started writing opinion pieces for Maariv concerning current political issues, and since 2007, she has written a regular column in the Judaism section of nrg concerning links between topics in Judaism and current events. She took part in several television programs on Channel 2: Osim Seder (Making Order) with Ben Caspit, Talking of Current Events with Dalia Neumann, and Medinat Halakha with Uri Orbach and Sarah Blau. She also participated as a guest host in the program HaBayit HaYehudi (The Jewish Home) on Channel 1.

Political career
Hotovely with Nikki Haley, 2017

On 11 November 2008, Hotovely announced that she was joining Likud, and would compete in the party's primaries for the 2009 Knesset elections. She won 18th place on the party's list, and became a member of the Knesset when Likud won 27 seats.[6] While a member of the Knesset's Committee on the State of Women and Gender Equality in 2011, she invited representatives from Lehava (Prevention of Assimilation in the Holy Land), a group whose primary objective is to oppose assimilation of Jews and which objects to any personal or business relationships between Jews and non-Jews,[7][8] to a discussion of the tactics used by the organization to prevent romantic relationships between Jews and Arabs. Hotovely defended her decision at the time, saying, "it is important to me to check systems to prevent mixed marriages, and Lehava are the most suitable for this."[9]

In March 2011, she wrote that Israeli author Amos Oz was naive, after he sent a Hamas leader a copy of his autobiography, writing that Oz would lack even the instinct to distinguish between Mordechai and Haman.[10]

In July 2011, Hotovely met with Glenn Beck. She told him that "this [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict isn't territorial... This is a religious battle led by Islam. We can't ignore this basic truth."[11]

In December 2011, Hotovely gained media attention by sitting at the front of a Mehadrin bus used by some Haredim, where women are asked to sit at the back of the bus.[12]

She was re-elected in the 2013 elections, after winning fifteenth place on the joint Likud-Yisrael Beiteinu list, and was appointed Deputy Minister of Transportation and Road Safety in the new government. She was also appointed Deputy Minister of Minister of Science and Technology in December 2014, after Yaakov Peri quit as the minister. Following the 2015 elections, in which she was re-elected in twentieth place on the Likud list, she was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in the new government.

In July 2017, following the declaration of Hebron as a Palestinian World Heritage Site by UNESCO,[13] Hotovely addressed the Arab members of Knesset in a speech, holding up the Tanakh in one hand and A History of the Palestinian People in the other, saying: "I recommend to UNESCO and to the Arab Knesset members to read these two books, the Bible which tells the story of the Jewish people, and Assaf Voll's new best-seller, A History of the Palestinian People: From Ancient Times to the Modern Era. It will captivate you because it is empty. Because the Palestinians don't have kings, and they don't have heritage sites."[14][15]

In January 2020, Hotovely was nominated for Minister of Diaspora Affairs, but her nomination was put on hold until the Knesset would approve it.[16] She was later sworn in as Minister of Settlement Affairs in the new government in May 2020.[1] In July 2020, she resigned from the Knesset under the Norwegian Law, and was replaced by Ariel Kellner. In August 2020, she resigned as Minister of Settlement Affairs.

Views and opinions

Hotovely rejects Palestinian statehood aspirations, supporting a Greater Israel spanning over the entire land of current Israel, along with the Palestinian territories.[17] She later reiterated her position in a speech to Israeli diplomats on 22 May 2015, rejecting criticism from the international community regarding the West Bank settlement policies and saying that Israel has tried too hard to appease the world, and must stand up for itself. She said: "We need to return to the basic truth of our rights to this country." She added: "This land is ours. All of it is ours. We did not come here to apologise for that." She has also stated that she will make every effort to achieve global recognition for West Bank settlements, as well as asserting that Israel owes no apologies for its policies in the Holy Land towards the Palestinians. She justified her position as she referenced religious texts to back her belief that Judea and Samaria belongs to the Jewish people.[18]

In October 2015, in an interview with the Knesset Channel, Hotovely said: "It's my dream to see the Israeli flag flying on the Temple Mount." She added: "I think it's the center of Israeli sovereignty, the capital of Israel, the holiest place for the Jewish people", despite the government's insistence that it has no intention of changing the status quo at the site.[19][20]

Alongside fellow politician Avraham Michaeli, Tzipi Hotovely is one of the most prominent Georgian Jews in Israel, and takes part in events to celebrate the Georgian-Jewish community.[21] In the Knesset, she sponsored a national authority bill to preserve and recognise the heritage of Georgian Jews.[22]

In a 22 November 2017 interview with Israel's I24news, Hotovely said that most American Jews "don't understand the complexities of the region", [the Middle East], because they "never send their children to fight for their country. Most of the Jews don't have children serving as soldiers."[23]

In 2019, Hotovely criticised the Board of Deputies of British Jews. Following the publication of the Board's Jewish Manifesto, which noted support for a two-state solution, she complained that they had not consulted “Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, our ambassador, any other political authority” before publication; also stating "an organization that supports the establishment of a Palestinian state is working against Israeli interests".[24][25]

Criticism

Several senior members of the British Jewish community, who are affiliated with the Labor Party and other left-wing groups, criticized her appointment as Ambassador of Israel to the United Kingdom, mainly because of her "ultra-right-wing" opinions - including Melanie Phillips,[26] Jenni Frazer,[27] Laura Janner-Klausner, and Jeremy Beecham, Baron Beecham, who stated: "The appointment of an ultra-right-wing ambassador, while typical of the present government of Israel, will do nothing to win friends in the UK – or indeed any other reasonable country."[28]

Personal life

On 27 May 2013, Hotovely married Or Alon, a lawyer,[29] in a wedding that had 2,500 guests.[30] She gave birth to her first daughter in 2014, to her second in 2016,[31][32] and to her third in 2018.[33]

References
  1. "After Year of Deadlock and Days of Delays, Knesset Swears in New Israeli Government". Haaretz. 17 May 2020.
  2. Lehmann, Sara (1 July 2009). "Likud's Rising Star - Single, Female And Religious". The Jewish Press. Archived from the original on 5 July 2009. Retrieved 23 March 2011.
  3. "ציפי חוטובלי, למישהו אכפת מזכויותיה של אשה?" Chairperson of the Committee on the Status of Women, Press Releases, 03/08/2011, www.tzipi.org.il
  4. Phillips, Alex (11 June 2020). "Israeli Settlements Minister Tzipi Hotovely accepts post of new UK ambassador". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  5. Shalom Koboshvili: Georgia’s Jewish Heritage by Milad Doroudian, 12 May 2014 | 9:08 am
  6. Ilan, Shahar. "The freshman". Haaretz. Retrieved 21 February 2009.
  7. Lehava 'Hotline' to Help Prevent Intermarriage, Assimilation Israel National News, 9 September 2013
  8. Meet Lehava, the Israeli Fascists Mounting a Vicious Crusade to Keep their Women Away from Arabs International Business Times, 22 September 2014
  9. Deputy Foreign Minister Hotovely tells world: Don't be afraid of me YNET, 16 May 2015.
  10. Book of Esther: Jewish fate ever since, Tzipi Hotovely, Israel Today, 17 March 2011
  11. Lahav Harkov (11 July 2011). "Beck's love for Israel not 'right' enough for some MKs". The Jerusalem Post.
  12. "Female MK to sit at front of 'mehadrin' bus". The Jerusalem Post. 28 December 2011.
  13. "Israelis outraged by UNESCO decision on Hebron holy site". Associated Press. ABC News. 7 July 2017. Retrieved 8 July 2017.
  14. Hotovely to Arab MKs: You are thieves of history Arutz7, 13 July 2017
  15. ‘You are thieves of history!’ Hotovely tells Palestinians, waving books at them Mondoweiss, Jonathan Ofir, 16 July 2017
  16. חיים לוינסון (10 January 2020). "ח"כ דוד ביטן, החשוד בשוחד, ויתר על המינוי לשר החקלאות לאור העיכובים". Haaretz (in Hebrew).
  17. "Hotovely laments Likud 'schizophrenia' on two states". The Jerusalem Post. 28 August 2013.
  18. "Israel's new deputy foreign minister: 'This land is ours". The Guardian. 22 May 2015.
  19. "Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister: I Dream of Israeli Flag on Temple Mount". The Times of Israel. 26 October 2015. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  20. Lis, Jonathan; Ravid, Barak (26 October 2015). "Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister: I Dream of Israeli Flag on Temple Mount". Haaretz. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  21. A gala evening in Tel Aviv 23-12-2012
  22. הצעת חוק הרשות הלאומית למורשת יהדות גיאורגיה (גרוזיה), התשס"ט
  23. "Hotovely: US Jews lead 'convenient' lives, don't serve in the military". Jewish Telegraph Agency. 22 November 2017.. Her statement came as she was addressing increased tensions between Israel and U.S. Jewry.
  24. Pfeffer, Anshel. "Tzipi Hotovely is the ugly, extremist face of Israel. British Jews should welcome her". Haaretz.com.
  25. Harpin, Lee. "Incoming envoy Hotovely attacked Board over two-state commitment". The Jewish Chronicle.
  26. "To put Israel's points, first learn about the Brits". www.thejc.com.
  27. "Israel must reconsider its choice of UK ambassador". timesofisrael.com.
  28. "Senior community figures challenge incoming Israeli envoy Tzipi Hotovely". www.thejc.com.
  29. Lahav Harkov (2 February 2013). "Likud MK Tzipi Hotovely gets engaged". The Jerusalem Post.
  30. רועי צ'יקי ארד (27 May 2013). "הערב המרגש של חוטובלי, וכמעט של כולם". Haaretz (in Hebrew).
  31. Arutz Sheva (24 March 2014). "Tzipi Hotovely's Firstborn Daughter Named Ma'ayan".
  32. Arutz Sheva (24 April 2016). "Deputy Foreign Minister gives birth to daughter: Second daughter born to Tzipi Hotovely; Eliraz to join sister Maayan and father Or Elon".
  33. "Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely gives birth to third child". The Jerusalem Post. 18 June 2018.
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