Idit Silman

Silman was born on October 27, 1980, in Rehovot.[1] Her parents immigrated from Morocco; her mother worked as a social worker at the National Insurance Institute, and her father was an engineer.[2] She completed a bachelor’s degree and teaching certificate in life sciences and sports, a master’s degree in physical education, and an MBA from the Peres Academic Center.[3]

Before entering politics, Silman worked as a teacher and held staff positions at Clalit Health Services. Her most recent role there was as a marketing coordinator serving the national-religious sector.[1][3] She left Clalit after receiving a last-minute invitation to join a party candidate list.[2] Silman is married to Shmuel Silman, has three children, and resides in Rehovot.[3]

Silman was active in the Jewish Home women’s forum, helped establish a school for women interested in entering politics, and worked on behalf of the Goldin family’s effort to secure the return of Hadar Goldin’s remains.[2] A 2021 profile described her as a religious Mizrahi woman and cited her work across party lines on food security, preventing violence against women, early-childhood education, and cultural sensitivity in schools.[4]

Silman entered the Knesset in April 2019 on the Union of Right-Wing Parties list, an alliance that included The Jewish Home and National Union.[1] After losing her seat, she served as chair of the Jewish Home’s party center and ran with the New Right. She returned to parliament in April 2021 after Alon Davidi resigned; Silman had been placed eighth on Yamina’s list for the election.[3][5]

In the Bennett-Lapid government, Silman served as chair of the governing coalition and its chief whip, as well as chair of the Knesset Health Committee.[1] Yamina had seven members, and she was the first coalition chair drawn from a faction that small. She described the job as coordinating the government’s eight parties and negotiating legislation, and cited the Jerusalem flag march and the evacuation of settlers from Eviatar as issues addressed through dialogue.[6]

As coalition chair, Silman was involved in passing Israel’s first state budget in more than three years.[1] The government held a 61-seat majority in the 120-member Knesset, making the coalition dependent on nearly all its members to retain a majority.[7]

A dispute over hametz—food containing grains or leavening prohibited to Jews during Passover—became an immediate flashpoint in Silman’s break with the coalition. After a 2020 Supreme Court ruling allowed people to bring hametz into hospitals, Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz asked hospitals to respect the ruling. Silman criticized Horowitz at a Health Committee meeting on April 3, 2022, and said, “We will not allow him to be a minister.”[8]

On April 6, Silman announced that she was leaving the coalition. She said she could no longer bear harm to “the values and flags that are an essence and a right,” and described the government’s actions as harming Jewish identity.[8][9] She called for a right-wing government and said another government could be formed without a new election.[10] Her departure reduced the coalition’s support from 61 to 60 seats, removing its majority and making it harder to pass legislation without opposition votes.[9]

Silman’s stated rationale included the hametz dispute and wider concerns about the coalition’s handling of Jewish identity and religion-state matters, including the status quo on Sabbath observance. In a later televised interview, she said Yamina voters had received the opposite of what they had been promised.[11] Accounts of her motives also differ: critics reported by the Washington Institute attributed her move to right-wing pressure in her Rehovot religious community and objections to the government’s accommodation of Arab Israeli representation.[7] The sources therefore describe both a specific religious-policy dispute and broader ideological and political factors, without establishing one exclusive explanation.

The parliamentary consequences were not an immediate transfer of power to the opposition. The Washington Institute noted that Netanyahu and his largely ultra-Orthodox allies held 52 seats after Silman’s departure; reaching 61 would also have required support from the six-member Joint List and from Silman and another Yamina member, Amichai Chikli.[7] Reporting also described pressure from Netanyahu and other opposition figures on Yamina members. Claims that Silman’s husband urged her to leave were reported but are not independently established in the material cited here.[12]

After leaving Yamina, Silman joined Likud. In September 2022, Benjamin Netanyahu selected her for the party’s Knesset slate, and she was placed 16th on the list for the November election.[13][14] The High Court of Justice rejected a petition challenging the Central Elections Committee’s approval of her candidacy, leaving her eligible to run; she was subsequently elected to the 25th Knesset as a Likud member.[15][14]

Her move was accompanied by reports of a possible political arrangement. Israeli media reported that she had been offered a place on Likud’s list and a ministerial position in return for leaving the coalition; the Movement for Quality Government in Israel called for an investigation into whether an alleged agreement violated the law.[13] N12 also reported an arrangement that would place her tenth on the list and make her health minister if Netanyahu formed a government.[10] These were reported allegations, distinct from the ideological reasons Silman publicly gave for resigning.

In Likud’s 2026 primary, Silman ranked 25th on the party’s nationwide list. After reserved positions were taken into account, the result did not secure her a place in the next Knesset.[16]

Silman became Minister of Environmental Protection in December 2022.[1] A 2024 account identified her in that role during the period surrounding the COP28 climate conference. Israel reduced its delegation to about a dozen people amid the Hamas-Israel war, but Silman argued that participation remained important: “The climate crisis persists even during these challenging times for Israel. Participating in COP is crucial.”[17]

During her tenure, Silman cited environmental licensing reforms, legislation concerning construction waste, protection of a cleanup and recycling fund, and progress on a southern waste-to-energy facility. She also pointed to rehabilitation packages for communities affected by the wars with Hezbollah and Hamas and plans addressing clean transport, food waste, and coastal protection.[18]

Climate legislation drew criticism from environmental organizations and opposition members. In December 2024, a revised climate bill advanced after a seven-hour committee discussion. It set a 27% greenhouse-gas reduction target and allowed the government to exempt ministries from preparing emissions-reduction plans; critics called its provisions weak, while committee chair Yaakov Asher defended it as a practical framework.[19] The same reporting said Silman restarted the legislative process after taking office, delaying it, while she described advancing the bill as a way to press the Finance Ministry to act.[19][18]

Silman also ordered a formal review of Israel’s participation in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 2015 Paris Agreement, along with a review of other international environmental bodies. In January 2026, she said Israel should not lend legitimacy to organizations she accused of using environmental issues for political purposes against the country.[20] A report on the review said it found that Israel did not need to leave the climate frameworks at that time.[18]

Her ministry’s policies and enforcement record were contested. Silman halted longstanding funding for environmental research and activities, initially citing budget constraints; the same reporting said the Finance Ministry disputed that explanation and later quoted her as saying some organizations “fight the state.” Ministry data released under freedom-of-information laws showed an 83% decline in environmental indictments during her term, a finding Silman called “fake news.”[18] The report also described criticism of her remarks about Palestinian waste burning and of her proposal to review participation in international environmental bodies.[18]

Silman’s 2022 departure became a prominent example of the leverage held by a single lawmaker in a narrowly divided parliament: it erased the government’s 61-seat majority and left it dependent on opposition support to pass legislation.[9] Her later appointment as environmental protection minister shifted her public role from coalition management to executive responsibility for climate, waste, and environmental regulation.[1][18]

The circumstances of Silman’s 2022 departure remain a prominent point of dispute. She publicly connected it to the hametz ruling and to concerns about Jewish identity, while critics and press accounts reported other political pressures and alleged offers connected to her move to Likud. The accounts document competing explanations and allegations, rather than proving a single hidden motive.[7][13]

Assessments of her environmental-ministry record also diverged. Silman cited legislative and administrative achievements, while environmental advocates criticized the climate bill, the suspension of organizational funding, and other policy decisions. The reported enforcement statistics were disputed by Silman, and her review of international climate commitments drew criticism.[18][19]