Limor Son Har-Melech | |
|---|---|
| לימור סון הר-מלך | |
 Official portrait, 2022 | |
| Faction represented in theKnesset | |
| 2022– | Otzma Yehudit |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Limor Elmaleh (1979-07-30)30 July 1979 (age 46) |
| Party | Otzma Yehudit |
| Other political affiliations | Homesh First |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | 10 |
| Parent(s) | Nissim Elmaleh (father) Shoshana Beit Eini (mother) |
| Residence(s) | Shavei Shomron,West Bank |
Limor Son Har-Melech (Hebrew:לימור סון הר-מלך; born 30 July 1979) is anIsraeli politician. She has been serving as a member of theKnesset for theOtzma Yehudit party following the2022 Israeli legislative election.[1]
A former resident of the West Bank settlement ofHomesh prior to the2005 disengagement, Son Har-Melech co-founded an organization seeking to rebuild theoutpost.[2] In 2003, Son Har-Melech was severely wounded, and her husband murdered, in an attack by Palestinian militants during theSecond Intifada.
Son Har-Melech was born as Limor Elmaleh inJerusalem in 1979. In 2001, she married her first husband, Shalom "Shuli" Har-Melech, and moved with him toHomesh, anIsraeli outpost in theWest Bank, where he was a medic and an ambulance driver, and they had a son together.[3]
In August 2003, during theSecond Intifada, while she was seven months pregnant with her second child, her husband and she were driving in a car nearRamallah on the West Bank when five gunmen fired upon their vehicle with automatic weapons and the vehicle rolled over. Shuli died instantly, whilst Limor was in critical condition, and her daughter was born prematurely bycaesarean section several hours later.[4][5]Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a Palestinian militant organization described as the military wing of the Palestinian political partyFatah, claimed responsibility for the attack.[6]
In 2005, Har-Melech and her family, along with the rest of the residents of Homesh, were evicted from their homes during theIsraeli disengagement from Gaza and some West Bank towns, with the settlement being demolished. In 2023, a video of Har-Melech in 2005, encouraging her then 2-year-old son as he vowed to "kill the Arabs", was published.[7] Har-Melech married her current husband, Yehuda Son,[2] in 2006 and had a further eight children with him. They moved out of temporary accommodation into a house in theShavei Shomronsettlement after her seventh child.[8]
Son Har-Melech co-founded the grassroots organizationHomesh First, which seeks to re-build the outpost she had lived in until 2005.[2] In the2022 Israeli legislative election, Son Har-Melech was chosen for the thirteenth spot on theReligious Zionist Party-Otzma Yehudit list. As the list won fourteen mandates, Son Har-Melech was successfully elected to the Knesset.[2]
In 2023, Son Har-Melech introduced legislation to ban the waving of Palestinian flags on Israeli college campuses.[9] She sponsored legislation to change the penal code to include rape against men in the legal definition of rape. It passed the Knesset in April 2025. She stated: "rape is rape, regardless of gender."[10][11]
Son Har-Melech was appointed the head of theKnesset'sHealth Committee in December 2025, pending approval by theHouse Committee.[12]
Son Har-Melech has echoed accusations that the leadership of theIsrael Defense Forces (IDF) privileges the safety ofPalestinians in the West Bank over Israeli settlers. In 2023, she claimed that the then-Minister of DefenseYoav Gallant "knowingly endangers" settlers, and should be replaced in office, and endorsed similar comments byLikud MKAvihai Boaron.[13]
On criminal justice issues, Son Har-Melech has argued that sentences for Arabs who kill Jews should be harsher than sentences for Jews who kill Arabs. In an interview with Ynet radio, Son Har-Melech said that a Jew who murders an Arab should receive life imprisonment, while any Arab "who kills a Jew needs to die".[14]
After Amiram Ben-Uliel, a settler convicted of thekilling by arson of three members of a Palestinian family, refused to accept seeing her in prison because her presence as a woman would offend his commitment to piety, Son Har-Melech praised him as a "saint", and affirmed her belief in his innocence.[15]
During a May 2025 Knesset discussion on theGaza humanitarian crisis, when an Israeli doctor argued that in Gaza "a 4-year-old whose arm has been amputated" should receive painkillers, Son Har-Melech responded: "The only treatment needed here is for you", in reference to the doctor.[16] When aNir Oz resident whose parents were kidnapped during 7 October (one of whom was later killed, and one of whom was later released) commented that "starving children [in Gaza] is not something we can be proud of", Son Har-Melech responded by reprimanding him, declaring it "horrific that you're talking about starvation when our children were butchered so cruelly. I wouldn't expect you to bring [starvation] up"; when starvation was later discussed, Son Har-Melech declared: "No one is starving anyone – stop echoing Hamas lies!"[16]
Son Har-Melech is supportive of introducing thedeath penalty for terrorists in Israel. She sponsored and brought the bill to the Knesset, which passed the first reading on 10 November 2025.[17]
Limor Son Har-Melech and her husband Yehuda Son live in theWest Bank settlement ofShavei Shomron.[8] She has ten children.[18]