×

Our award-winning reporting has moved

Context provides news and analysis on three of the world’s most critical issues:

climate change, the impact of technology on society, and inclusive economies.

Israeli champion of Palestinian and women's rights dies

by Reuters
Friday, 24 January 2014 09:57 GMT

Newly sworn-in Prime Minister Shimon Peres sits with President Ezer Weizman (L) as he poses with his cabinet for a government family portrait November 22 in the president's residence after the government was ratified in the Knesset (Parliament), Ms.Shulamit in white, November 22, 1995 REUTERS/Jim Hollander

Image Caption and Rights Information

Aloni founded a civil libertarian faction in the 1970's after quitting then Prime Minister Golda Meir's Labour party in a dispute over religious influence in government. Her movement evolved into a tiny party that is still in Israel's parliament.

JERUSALEM, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Shulamit Aloni, a fiery former left-wing Israeli leader and cabinet minister who championed Palestinian and women's rights, died on Friday, family and colleagues said. She was 85.

Aloni founded a civil libertarian faction in the 1970's after quitting then Prime Minister Golda Meir's Labour party in a dispute over religious influence in government. Her movement evolved into a tiny party that is still in Israel's parliament.

Born in Tel Aviv, Aloni had advocated the formation of a Palestinian state on land captured by Israel during the 1967 war, long before a Washington-brokered peace process that is still searching for an elusive deal.

A 30-year veteran of Israel's parliament, Aloni served as education minister and later communications minister in the late Yitzhak Rabin's government in the early 1990's. Rabin was assassinated in 1995 by an Israeli ultranationalist protesting a 1993 interim deal with the Palestinians.

Aloni continued her activism long past her retirement from politics in 1996, demanding at a 2011 Tel Aviv peace rally "the complete end of occupation."

She was mourned by political friends and foes alike. In a written statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, head of the right-wing Likud party, said:

"Despite the deep differences between us over the years, I admired her contribution to Israeli public life and Aloni's determination to stand up firmly for her beliefs."

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

-->