Naama Lazimi: A feminist, social democrat and pro-peace Member of Knesset
A few weeks ago, I had the privilege and pleasure of hearing MK Naama Lazimi speak to a group of about 75 activists affiliated with the new political party, The Democrats (a merger of Meretz and Labor), to which I belong, at a special meeting in the center of Jerusalem. I was positively impressed and inspired by both what she said and how she said it. She spoke with passion and persuasion on all the issues of the day in a committed and convincing fashion.
Who is this bright, newish, energetic and knowledgeable member of Knesset? Why is she one of the most important emerging new leaders in Israel today? How did she get there?
Lazimi grew up in the development town of Migdal HaEmek in the Lower Galilee. Her father was involved with the Labor Party there, where he served as a deputy mayor of the city. So, she grew up in the movement.
After serving in the IDF, she studied political science and Jewish history at the University of Haifa, where she was active in the university’s student association as vice-chairperson. Upon graduation from the university, she worked on the staff of the once prominent member of Knesset Shelly Yachimovich (a former head of the Labor Party). This is how she began to get involved with politics.
In 2012, she was elected to the Labor Party leadership and in 2018, after she had moved to Haifa, she was elected as a member of the Haifa City Council. During that period, she chaired the Haifa Gender Equality Committee and the board of directors of the Haifa Museums Company.
In 2021, ahead of the 24th elections for the Knesset, Lazimi was elected in the primaries to the 9th place on the Labor Party list, which received seven seats. Following the resignation of veteran MK Omer Bar-Lev from the Knesset, she entered the Knesset for the first time. In August 2022, ahead of the 25th elections for the Knesset, Lazimi was elected in the primaries to the 2nd place on the Labor Party list, becoming one of the 4 MKs for the Labor Party (now part of The Democrats) in that election. Accordingly, she has been a member of Knesset for just over three years.
In a very short time, Lazimi has made her mark in the Knesset and in the Israeli public. She is a serious, sensible and substantive parliamentarian, who is actively promoting social legislation, as well as promoting peace and diplomacy instead of only war and violence. In addition, she has been outspoken in the Israeli media in criticizing the government’s deleterious social policies, especially the proposed extremist budget for 2026. For example, in a recent article in Haaretz (December 15, 2025), she wrote:
A robbery is taking place in Israel in broad daylight. It’s not being shouted about, but it’s written in black on white in the state budget. At a time when the public is trying to pick up the pieces from Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, the state’s coffers are being looted in Jerusalem.
At a time when the public has mobilized to fight for the country, the government has responded to it with detachedness and evasion of responsibility. What is most grating right now is that a government that sent its soldiers into the Gaz Strip and its civilians into shelters doesn’t feel any obligation to them and doesn’t see itself as responsible to create a better reality.
The current battle isn’t only over funding but over the social contract between the state and its citizens. The budget embodies the question of what Israel is. Is it a corrupt, antidemocratic country that espouses government rot and abandonment of its citizens while taking care only of those close to it, or is it a shared home that deserves to be repaired and can flourish?
Lazimi and the rest of us know the answer to these questions. But she and her colleagues in the new political party in Israel known as The Democrats want to correct this when they become part of the ruling coalition in the next government.
Lazimi has also been outspoken about the prioritizing of peace. In a profile in the Times of Israel (August 7, 2025) earlier this year, she said:
There doesn’t need to be a contradiction between civil equality for all who live here and aspire to peace and coexistence, and the desire for Israel to be the nation-state of the Jewish people.
What is evident is that the public has grown weary of the government’s “endless war” and deepening international isolation, all to promote the agenda of an extremist minority.
The notion that the pursuit of peace has now become synonymous, for many on the right, with treachery is perhaps the clearest example of how distorted their values have become. Peace is one of the most integral parts of the Jewish religion. It’s in every morning prayer. Netanyahu’s government has forgotten what Jewish values are, not me.
Naama Lazimi is my kind of Member of Knesset. In the upcoming elections, I hope we will have many more like her in The Democrats and perhaps also in other sane political parties in Israel (which does not include the Likud, Jewish Power, “Religious Zionism” or the ultra-Orthodox parties, all of whom have become detached and distorted under Bibi and by Bibi in the current government, which must be completely rejected by the people of Israel in the upcoming elections). Lazimi offers hope for the future for all citizens of Israel, as well as for Palestinians and Israelis in the region who need to find a way to live in peaceful coexistence rather than perpetual war.
