Naama Lazimi has emerged as one of the most popular and combative figures on Israel’s fragmented left, presenting herself as a future education minister and insisting that her political camp must stop apologizing for seeking power.
In an extensive profile published by Haaretz, journalist Moran Sharir describes the 40-year-old Democrats lawmaker as a rare politician capable of attracting both veteran Labor supporters and younger progressive activists. Her popularity was demonstrated in the Democrats’ recent primary, in which she reportedly secured more than 90% of the vote.
Lazimi first gained national attention in 2022, when the then-little-known parliamentarian unexpectedly finished first in the Labor Party primary. Since then, she has built her public profile through forceful Knesset speeches, frequent appearances at anti-government demonstrations and campaigns on public housing, workers’ rights and social inequality.
Her confrontational style has made her a target of Israel’s right, but also strengthened her position among opposition voters who want a more assertive left-wing leadership. Lazimi told Haaretz that she considers herself the leading female target of what she called the right’s “poison machine.”
She has accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of adopting the behaviour and mentality of a dictator and blamed his prolonged rule for deepening social divisions. Lazimi nevertheless rejected the suggestion that a future Israeli government should surrender Netanyahu to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, saying he would have to handle his own legal difficulties while a new administration focused on rebuilding the country.
The daughter of a former Labor branch secretary in the northern town of Migdal Ha’emek, Lazimi combines Mizrahi, traditional and social-democratic identities. She argues that this background disrupts the right’s attempt to portray the Israeli left as an exclusively Ashkenazi, secular and privileged movement.
However, her party continues to struggle in many peripheral communities. Labor received only 181 votes in Migdal Ha’emek during the last election. Lazimi acknowledged the depth of the rupture but said the Democrats must refuse to become a niche party. She has spent two years developing activist networks in places including Ofakim, Kiryat Shmona and Carmiel.
Her principal ambition is to become education minister. Lazimi told Sharir that Israel’s judicial and political crisis had convinced her that education was the country’s most important ideological portfolio. She accused the Education Ministry of becoming intimidated by the governing coalition and failing to protect democratic and liberal values.
Lazimi also argues that the left has been conditioned to accept minor positions in coalition governments while conservative parties take control of influential ministries such as education, justice and housing. She now openly rejects that approach, asking why right-wing politicians should automatically receive more authority than she does.
Her position on the Gaza war is more complicated. Challenged by Sharir over the Israeli left’s limited public response to starvation, civilian deaths and humanitarian devastation in Gaza, Lazimi said the Democrats had spoken out, though perhaps not as forcefully as critics expected. She cited the party’s campaigns for the hostages, an end to prolonged warfare, a diplomatic settlement and an official inquiry into the October 7 attacks.
She expressed sorrow over the destruction in Gaza and said the territory would ultimately have to be rebuilt. Yet she also argued that the trauma of October 7 and the subsequent multi-front war had left Israeli society unable to confront fully what was being done in its name.
Lazimi supports separation from the Palestinians as a security objective while also demanding equal rights and universal protections. During a visit to the Palestinian village of Umm al-Khair, she listened to residents’ accounts of settler violence and warned that expanding outposts were making a future political separation increasingly difficult.
Despite threats and inflammatory attacks directed against her, Lazimi says she will not moderate her language merely to preserve cordial relations in parliament. She is not currently challenging Democrats leader Yair Golan, but does not rule out seeking the party leadership in the future. For now, her immediate objective is clearer: win sufficient political influence to move Israel’s left from protest back into government.