10 Facts About Shulamit Aloni

Shulamit Aloni founded the Ratz party, was leader of the Meretz party, Leader of the Opposition from 1988 to 1990, and served as Minister of Education from 1992 to 1993.

Shulamit Aloni's mother was a seamstress and her father was a carpenter, both descended from Polish rabbinical families.

The family migrated to Mandatory Palestine when she was a child, and Aloni grew up in Tel Aviv.

Shulamit Aloni was sent to boarding school during World War II while her parents served in the British Army.

Shulamit Aloni worked as an attorney, hosted a radio show called After Working Hours giving legal advice to ordinary Israelis and wrote columns for the newspaper Yediot Ahronoth and the weekly LaIsha.

In 1965, Shulamit Aloni was elected to the Knesset on the list of the Alignment, an alliance of Mapai and Ahdut HaAvoda, and subsequently founded the Israel Consumers Council, which she chaired for four years.

Shulamit Aloni left the Alignment in 1973 and established the Citizens Rights Movement, which became known as Ratz.

Shulamit Aloni became Minister of Education under Yitzhak Rabin but was forced to resign after a year due to her outspoken statements on matters of religion.

Shulamit Aloni was reappointed Minister of Communications and Science and Culture.

Shulamit Aloni was a board member of Yesh Din, an organisation founded in 2005 which focuses on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories.