Zehava Gal-On
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Zehava Gal-On, Hebrew: זהבה גלאון , born as Zehava Schnipitzky, (born January 4, 1956 in Vilnius) is an Israeli activist and politician. She is political leader of Meretz ("Vigour"). She has been leading Meretz since 2012.
She was born in the capital of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic. As a young child she moved with her parents to Israel, where she grew up for the greater part in Petah Tikva. She studied philology and special education, and mastered at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Gal-On is engaged in all sorts of rights activism, like civil and human rights but also women's rights and social justice. She held leading positions in newspaper Politika, in B'Tselem (a human rights organization concerning Israel's behaviour in the Palestinian territories) and Ratz (a forerunner of Meretz).
In 1999 she was chosen into the Knesset. She lost her seat in 2009 but returned in 2011. She left the Knesset in October 2017.
As a Member of Knesset she was chairing the parliamentarian committee with regard to women trafficking, and criticized the Law of Return for being discriminatory.