Idit Silman | |
|---|---|
עידית סילמן | |
 Official portrait, 2019 | |
| Ministerial roles | |
| 2022– | Minister of Environmental Protection |
| Faction represented in theKnesset | |
| 2019 | Union of Right-Wing Parties |
| 2021–2022 | Yamina |
| 2022–2023 | Likud |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Idit Levy (1980-10-27)27 October 1980 (age 45) |
| Spouse | Shmuel Silman |
| Children | 3 |
Idit Silman (Hebrew:עידית סילמן; born 27 October 1980) is an Israeli politician who currently serves as theMinister of Environmental Protection. Silman previously served as a member of theKnesset forLikud from 2022 to 2023, forYamina from 2021 to 2022, and for theUnion of Right-Wing Parties in 2019.[1] She was theparliamentary whip of the coalition from 2021,[2] until her resignation from the coalition on 6 April 2022, after which she maintained her Knesset seat and shifted the balance of power between coalition and opposition.[3]
Idit Silman was born inRehovot to immigrantMoroccan Jewish parents fromMorocco,[4][5] and was educated atUlpana Tzfira and theWingate Institute.[6] She worked in marketing in the health sector.[7] She is married, and has three children.
She was an activist withMafdal since her youth,[8] and continued inthe Jewish Home into which Mafdal was merged,[9] where she was chosen for the female spot on the party list for theApril 2019 Knesset elections.[10] When the party joined theUnion of the Right-Wing Parties alliance, she was placed fifth on its list, going on to enter the Knesset as the alliance won five seats.[11]
Silman was given the eighth slot on theYamina list (a joint ticket of theNew Right, The Jewish Home, andNational Union) for the elections to the 22nd Knesset. However Yamina won only seven seats, and Silman lost her seat in the Knesset.[12][13]
Silman left the Jewish Home for the New Right on 15 January 2020,[14] and was placed in the seventh slot on the Yamina list the same day when the alliance was re-established for the2020 Israeli legislative election.[15] She was the first person to chair theHealth Committee.[16]
She was placed in the eighth slot of the Yamina list ahead of the2021 Israeli legislative election.[17] She became an MK afterAlon Davidi resigned from the Yamina list before being sworn in.[18]
On 6 April 2022, Silman resigned from the coalition, causing thegoverning coalition ofPrime MinisterNaftali Bennett to lose its majority in the Knesset, and raising the possibility of new elections in Israel for the fifth time in four years.[3] Prime Minister Bennett claimed that Silman had been "persecuted for months" by supporters ofLikud party leader and opposition leaderBenjamin Netanyahu "at the most horrific level" until she "broke" and left the coalition.[19]
Silman faced allegations that her resignation coincided with an assurance from Benjamin Netanyahu that the tenth place on the Likud list in the upcoming elections would be secured for her and that she would be guaranteed the position of Minister of Health.[20][21][22] However, Silman asserted that her decision to retire was not linked to any such commitment. She referenced the fact that the Minister of Health,Nitzan Horowitz, citing asupreme court decision, instructed hospitals to allow visitors to enter withchametz (leavened bread) duringPassover. Possessingchametz during Passover is forbidden underJewish religious laws.[23] On 2 May, in her first interview since her resignation from the coalition, Silman said that she made the move due to various religion-related actions of the coalition. Specifically, she referenced the upcoming reforms inkashrut-oversight authorities, changes in authorizations to conductgiyur (conversion to Judaism), discussions about creating a section for thenon-Orthodox in theWestern Wall Plaza, and the Treasury Minister's decision to limit financial support of poor families whose parents neither work, nor engage in studies with the intention of acquiring a profession. This last category is seen by some as a way to coerceHaredim to reduce their religious learning studies and enter the secular world.[24]
Silman resigned from the Knesset on 11 September and was replaced byOrna Starkmann.[25][26] She was later given the 16th spot on the Likud's list ahead of the2022 election.[27] Following the results Silman returned for an additional term as an MK with Likud winning 32 seats.
On 29 December 2022, Silman was appointedEnvironmental Protection Minister by Benjamin Netanyahu during the formation of thethirty-seventh government of Israel.[28] She resigned from the Knesset on 7 January 2023 as part of theNorwegian Law.[1]
Afterthe Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 she was chased out of a hospital after attempting to visit survivors of the attacks, as both relatives of the injured and staff of the hospital angrily shouted at her, holding the government and their actions, and by extension her, responsible for the political climate that led to the attacks, accusing that they have "ruined" the country of Israel.[29]
In an 11 March 2025 interview, Silman indicated her support for US PresidentDonald Trump's proposal to displace Palestinians from theGaza Strip. She stated that the "only solution for the Gaza Strip is to empty it of Gazans," continuing that the government of Prime Minister Netanyahu was "committed to the idea of encouraging emigration" and that "God has sent us the U.S. administration, and it is clearly telling us – it's time to inherit the land."[30]
During a debate in the Knesset on December 3, 2025, she stated that the Israeli army should kill Palestinians who burn garbage in the West Bank.[31]