Aida Touma-Suleiman

Touma-Suleiman was born on July 16, 1964, and grew up in Nazareth.[1][5] During her childhood, her father suffered a serious workplace injury and remained unconscious for an extended period, leaving her mother responsible for supporting the family while caring for him and their daughters.[5] Her mother arranged for a textile factory to send work to the family home; Touma-Suleiman recalled completing her homework after school and then folding and packaging garments until 7 p.m.[5]

At age 23, she married her partner, Jeries.[5] She recalled that they each set a condition for their marriage: he asked that she never consider leaving Acre, while she asked that he not interfere in her decisions about public life.[5] She said that he respected this condition and supported her work.[5] In a 2022 interview, she said that he had died of cancer 12 years earlier; an election profile that year described her as widowed, with two children, and living in Acre.[5][1]

Touma-Suleiman began her public activity by promoting women’s rights in Arab society and more broadly.[5] She was a member of Hadash’s political bureau and the Israeli Communist Party, and served for four years as editor-in-chief of the Arabic daily Al-Ittihad before entering the Knesset.[6] She was also one of the drafters of “The Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel.”[1]

In 1992, she helped establish Women Against Violence, an organization formed by Arab women seeking to break the silence around abuse of women in the Palestinian community in Israel.[7] She served as its executive director and was among its founding pioneers.[6][7] The organization established shelters, centers for abused women, and a halfway house for women who had left abusive husbands.[7] Her advocacy included legislation and campaigns concerning so-called family honor crimes, child marriage, and polygamy, and she received a New Israel Fund award in 2008.[8]

Before entering parliament, she advanced measures concerning family courts, raising the marriage age from 17 to 18, and encouraging women’s representation on city councils.[9] Her international activity encompassed peace advocacy, women’s rights, and opposition to the occupation.[6] She became the first woman member of the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel and co-founded the International Women’s Commission for a Just Palestinian-Israeli Peace.[7]

Women Against Violence also developed regional partnerships, including Salma, a network of nine Arab women’s nongovernmental organizations from the Middle East and North Africa, and the Coalition for Sexuality and Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies.[7] Reflecting on opposition to her public activity, Touma-Suleiman said that resistance increased as she gained influence and that strong opposition could indicate that her work was addressing significant issues.[5]

Touma-Suleiman entered the Knesset in 2015 through the Joint List, after five unsuccessful attempts to win a Hadash seat dating back to the 1992 election.[10] Her candidacy formed part of a political realignment driven by pressure for Arab-party unity, new candidates, and greater representation of women.[11] She was among the new figures presented by the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality for the election to the 20th Knesset.[11]

The demand for unity was reflected in a Facebook poll published by the Arab Muttahidun, or “United Arabs,” page: 83 percent of respondents favored a united Arab list, while 2 percent wanted the parties to remain as they were.[11] These figures described respondents to a Facebook poll rather than a population-wide survey.[11] Four Arab-majority parties ultimately united as the Joint List, which won 13 seats in March 2015 and became the Knesset’s third-largest faction.[2]

Touma-Suleiman occupied fifth place on the Joint List’s 2015 slate under Hadash and entered parliament as a first-time member.[12] Two women won seats representing the Joint List.[2] In a separate report on candidate registration for an upcoming election, she was listed fourth on the Joint List slate.[13]

In 2015, she was elected chair of the Committee for the Advancement of the Status of Women and Gender Equality, becoming the first Arab citizen of Israel to chair a permanent Knesset committee.[2][10] Her chairmanship continued to be recorded in subsequent parliamentary reporting.[14][15] The 2016 reporting placed this milestone in the context of a 120-member Knesset containing 29 women and 15 Arab members; by September 2017, the chamber included 33 women and 17 members from ethnic or religious minorities.[14][15]

As committee chair, Touma-Suleiman worked on women’s exclusion from the public sphere, discrimination based on ethnic origin, and violence against women, with measures relevant to Arab and Jewish women, secular and religious alike.[3] In 2015, Religious Affairs Minister David Azulay announced an initiative in collaboration with her to train and empower ultra-Orthodox women to discuss sexual abuse and domestic violence within their community.[2]

Women’s representation in public decision-making was another focus.[16] In December 2017, she criticized ministers for failing to ensure appropriate representation on public committees, emphasizing that women from Arab and ultra-Orthodox communities experienced multiple forms of exclusion.[16] Discussing local politics in 2018, she argued that women faced barriers arising from campaign costs, dependence on strong party organizations, unpaid voluntary work, and greater domestic responsibilities.[17] She maintained that large, well-organized parties could provide women candidates with a support system.[17]

In 2017, Touma-Suleiman called for an emergency meeting and immediate adoption of a government action plan against violence toward women.[18] The plan, estimated to cost 350 million shekels, included stronger protection systems, services for affected women and children, treatment for violent men, proposed legal changes, and public-awareness projects.[18] She also advocated a single national authority to coordinate the response, proposing legislation intended to bring together resources and cooperation across government ministries.[18]

Following the December 2018 killing of Iman Awad in Acre, she supported renewed demands for implementation of the national domestic-violence prevention plan.[19] Protest organizers called for daily 25-minute stoppages and demonstrations, with allocation of 250 million shekels among their central demands.[19] Touma-Suleiman argued that promises did not save lives and called for the money to be transferred immediately.[19]

She initiated a five-year temporary amendment in 2021 requiring courts, after issuing a protective order, to refer the person subject to it for a social-worker assessment and report that could inform a referral to treatment.[20] The provision was expected to take effect in June 2022, but implementation was delayed by two months and remained outstanding six months later.[20] In January 2023, she accused the Welfare Ministry of failing to implement the law and said that the ministry had cited difficulty recruiting social workers.[20]

Touma-Suleiman participated in an October 19, 2021 conference on curbing violence and crime in Arab society alongside other senior Arab-community representatives.[21] The associated policy recommendations had been presented to decision makers before the government adopted its relevant decision on October 14.[21] She was also listed as a speaker at a December 7, 2021 event addressing violence, crime, housing, and employment in Arab society.[22] That event was the fourteenth meeting in the “Left, Right and Fake Politics” series and examined whether the crisis was intractable or whether political partnership offered an unusual opportunity for change.[22]

In September 2019, she opposed a Likud proposal to allow political parties to place surveillance cameras at polling stations.[23] The Knesset Arrangements Committee rejected a request to fast-track the bill after a tied vote, preventing it from proceeding to a first reading that day.[23] Touma-Suleiman welcomed the outcome and characterized the proposal as an attack on democracy.[23]

In a 2015 interview, she supported a two-state solution while explaining that her communist ideal would be a single state.[10] She argued that two states were more practical and reflected Palestinians’ desire for self-determination.[10] Under the prevailing balance of power, she maintained, a one-state arrangement could resemble the vision of the extreme Jewish right rather than the egalitarian society she favored.[10] She also characterized the existing situation as one state controlling the territory without equal political rights for Palestinians.[10]

In 2025, she continued to advocate Palestinian statehood and criticized recent international recognitions as “too little, too late.”[24] At a press conference with Israeli and Palestinian speakers, she said that a ceasefire and hostage release would be insufficient without Gaza’s reconstruction and recognition of the Palestinian people’s right to independence.[24] She argued that ending the occupation and establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel would open the way to peace.[24]

She was also involved in discussions about reviving the Joint List, saying that talks continued despite disagreements.[4] She did not rule out supporting an alternative governing coalition, but said that she would not support a government that continued the war in Gaza and refused to pursue a political solution.[4] In May 2026, her departure after 11 years in the Knesset was announced, without a stated reason.[4]

Touma-Suleiman’s 2015 appointment established a parliamentary milestone: an Arab citizen of Israel chaired a permanent Knesset committee for the first time.[2] Her work linked leadership in an Arab feminist organization with parliamentary initiatives addressing violence, public representation, and discrimination affecting women across communities.[3] The shelters and support services established by Women Against Violence formed a practical component of the advocacy in which she had participated since the organization’s founding.[7]

By 2026, she had spent years in second position on Hadash’s list and was described as an influential figure in Arab politics.[25] Her departure from the Joint List left a significant gap in women’s representation.[25] Her legislative activity included both efforts preceding her parliamentary career—such as raising the marriage age—and later measures intended to connect protective orders with assessment and treatment.[9][20]

Touma-Suleiman’s descriptions of Israeli policy have generated political controversy.[8] At a February 2017 Knesset conference titled “Not in a democracy: 50 years of occupation,” she said that Israel had to choose between peace with the Palestinians and “the road to apartheid or war.”[8] During an August 2018 United States tour, she criticized Israeli legislation as effectively legalizing apartheid.[8] A further controversy arose in 2022 over a tweet referring to members of the Lions’ Den terrorist group as “martyrs”; the available account did not reproduce the full tweet or provide her response to criticism.[5]

In November 2023, the Knesset Ethics Committee suspended her for one month and deducted two weeks’ pay over accusations that the IDF had committed war crimes, including shooting displaced Palestinians in Gaza and attacking a hospital.[26] The committee said that she had not apologized or withdrawn her statements and characterized them as an accusation of an IDF war crime that could undermine Israel’s legitimacy.[27] Hadash-Ta’al rejected the sanction as political and defended her remarks as protected political expression; the allegations underlying the dispute were accusations, not established findings.[27]

In June 2025, the committee barred her from speaking at committee and plenum meetings for three days over statements made in April and September 2024 concerning alleged IDF war crimes and the right of people under occupation to defend themselves.[28] She argued that the complaints interfered with political activity and served as a tool of incitement against her work.[28] The committee warned that a repeated infraction could lead it to consider a salary deduction.[28]