44 Facts About Stav Shaffir

Stav Shaffir is an Israeli politician and former member of Knesset.

Stav Shaffir is the leader of the Green Party and was a member of the Knesset for the Democratic Union alliance.

Stav Shaffir came to national prominence as one of the leaders of the 2011 Israeli social justice protests, focusing on housing, public services, income inequality and democracy, and later became spokeswoman of the movement.

Stav Shaffir was elected to the Knesset as a member of the Labor Party in 2013.

The party contested the 2015 elections as part of the Zionist Union alliance, with Shaffir retaining her seat.

Stav Shaffir was re-elected again in the April 2019 elections, in which Labor ran alone.

Stav Shaffir was born in Netanya, Israel, to a family of Ashkenazi Jewish, Polish-Jewish, Lithuanian-Jewish Romanian-Jewish and Iraqi-Jewish descent.

At the age of 12, Stav Shaffir's family moved to Pardesiya, a small town in the Sharon area, where her parents had an accounting firm.

Stav Shaffir served in the Israel Defense Forces as a cadet in the flight academy of the Israeli Air Force.

Stav Shaffir, who plays the piano, drums, guitar, violin and oud, continued her studies in Israel at the Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music in Ramat-HaSharon for a year.

Stav Shaffir worked as a freelance journalist and an editor for National Geographic, the Ha'ir weekly newspaper, the Mako Magazine and Yedioth Ahronoth internet site Xnet, where she published the first article to appear in the Israeli media about the 2011 Israeli social justice protests.

In 2021, Stav Shaffir took part in the second season of The Singer in the Mask as the Beetle and was the ninth contestant eliminated.

Stav Shaffir, along with Daphni Leef and Itzik Shmuli, was a founder, organizer and unofficial leader of the 2011 Israeli social justice protests, when about 400,000 Israelis went to the streets in a series of public demonstrations.

On 17 July 2011, Stav Shaffir debated with Likud MK Miri Regev on the current events television program "Erev Hadash" about the protest against the housing prices.

Stav Shaffir served as spokesperson for the Israeli media and represented the protest movement in foreign media outlets.

In 2012, Stav Shaffir was a keynote speaker at three US-based conferences: J Street, together with Israeli writer Amos Oz, the Jewish Federations of North America's TribeFest and the Personal Democracy Forum.

Stav Shaffir was approached by the Labor Party in May 2012 to join its ranks in preparation for the 2013 general elections held on 22 January 2013.

Stav Shaffir officially declared her candidacy for the Labor Party list on 12 October 2012.

Stav Shaffir placed 9th as a result of the 29 November 2012 primaries, securing her a seat in the Knesset following the 22 January 2013 general elections.

Stav Shaffir was the MK with the lowest net worth, a total of $20,000, owning neither an apartment nor a car.

Stav Shaffir was one of eight MKs to forgo their 2015 pay raise calling it "distasteful" in light of wage stagnation in the Israeli job market.

In May 2012, Stav Shaffir joined 10,000 protestors demanding that the proposed 2013 Israeli State Budget be made more favorable to middle and lower income Israelis.

Stav Shaffir appointed a team of volunteers to investigate the budgetary transfers and eventually brought her concerns to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the Finance Ministry must reach a compromise with Stav Shaffir on a new method for budget transfers by February 2015.

Stav Shaffir was an advocate of fair compensation for residents of southern Israel who were most impacted by the 2014 Operation Protective Shield in Gaza.

Stav Shaffir objected to a political deal to transfer millions of shekels to settlements and nothing to the South.

Stav Shaffir got funds allocated to local authorities impacted by rocket fire in the South, but 73 days after Operation Protective Shield began, the funds had yet to be transferred.

Stav Shaffir objected to the transfer of millions of shekels to the World Zionist Organization Settlement Division, which circumvents oversight because legally it is under no obligation to report what it does with government funding.

Stav Shaffir wrote a letter complaining that Finance Committee Chair Slomiansky should not be allowed to conduct meetings on the World Zionist Organization Settlement Division's budget.

Stav Shaffir argued against funding for the Jewish Identity Administration which she considered a ploy to promote a right wing political agenda.

Stav Shaffir was repeatedly forcibly removed from Committee meetings for complaining about the lack of clear information about what was being voted on.

Stav Shaffir had publicly criticized their secret dealings that included extensive indirect funding for building West Bank settlements.

In July 2015 it was decided that Stav Shaffir would start and chair a new semi permanent committee in parliament, The Special Committee for the Transparency and Accessibility of Government Information.

Stav Shaffir donned a tallit and joined Women of the Wall in prayer at the Western Wall in Jerusalem in March 2013.

In spring 2014, Stav Shaffir traveled to the US as a member of a delegation of female Knesset members studying the role of women in legislatures.

Stav Shaffir proposed legislation in May 2013 that would allow same-sex couples to get government recognition for civil unions.

Stav Shaffir spoke about connecting socioeconomic issues with the Israeli-Palestinian peace process at the Fall 2013 J Street Conference in Washington, DC.

Stav Shaffir spoke to the need for cautious exploration of non-violent means for Israel to resolve its conflict with Iran.

On 13 February 2014, Stav Shaffir proposed legislation to regulate the rental housing market.

Stav Shaffir advocated for Israel to adopt a formal asylum policy that distinguishes between refugees and migrants with quotas based on Israel's capacity for absorption.

On 11 February 2017, Stav Shaffir was appointed Chair of the newly established Committee of Government transparency in the OECD organization.

In July 2019, Stav Shaffir left the Labor party to run as part of the Democratic Union party, a union of the Green Movement, Meretz and Israel Democratic Party.

Stav Shaffir resigned from the Knesset and was replaced by the next person on the Labor list, Merav Michaeli.

In December 2019, Stav Shaffir announced that she would be renaming the Green Movement the Green Party, and would run independently in the 2020 elections.

Stav Shaffir was re-elected as the head of the party on 29 January 2021.