Israeli Women's Basketball Premier League

The Premier League is Israel's top professional women's basketball competition.[1] In 2016, it comprised eight teams drawn from different parts of the country, fielding approximately 100 players across more than 100 games per season.[1] The 2011/12 season opened with 11 teams, and the 2012/13 season had nine, reflecting the league's changing composition over time.[6][7]

In 2011, the Israel Basketball Association transferred the management and marketing of the professional women's league to a newly created public-benefit company, Professional Women's Basketball League Ltd.[1][2] The association retained responsibility for areas including regulation, infrastructure, education, and national teams.[1] The league administration subsequently reduced the foreign-player limit from four to three per team and restored live broadcasts on the Sport Channel.[1]

The roots of organized women's basketball in Israel stretch back decades. Maccabi Ironi Ramat Gan's women's program, for example, was founded in 1957 and had won two national championships and finished runner-up six times by 2026.[8] AS Ramat Hasharon was founded in 1986 by player Orna Ostfeld and the L.K.N. association, whose Hebrew name means "Promotion of Women's Basketball." The association had been established the previous year in protest against discrimination against women's basketball at the 12th Maccabiah.[9] Ramat Hasharon began in League A, earned promotion to Liga Artzit after its first season, and reached the national league—the forerunner of the present-day Premier League—in 1990.[9]

Elitzur Holon built the league's first great dynasty, winning 20 Israeli league championships and 18 Israeli Cups between 1977 and 1996.[4] In the years that followed, Elitzur Ramle and Anda Ramat Hasharon emerged as principal title contenders, with both clubs also competing in European competitions.[10] Ramat Hasharon claimed six league championships between 1998/99 and 2009/10. It also reached the Ronchetti Cup final in 1998/99, winning the first leg against Gran Canaria before losing the second and finishing as runner-up.[9]

Elitzur Ramle's 2010/11 campaign stands as one of the most celebrated in the league's history. The club went 29–1 domestically, swept Maccabi Ashdod 3–0 in the playoff final, and completed a historic treble of the Israeli championship, State Cup, and EuroCup—the first such triple in Israeli women's basketball and the club's eighth championship.[5] By winning the EuroCup during that season, Ramle became the first Israeli women's basketball team to claim a European title.[7][5] Ramle entered the following season as defending champion, and a round-four fixture against Ramat Hasharon was billed as the "Super-Classico."[6]

The league also provided a stage for prominent players with international experience. After competing in the WNBA, Shay Doron returned to Israel following 2007 and joined Elitzur Ramle, helping the club reach the EuroCup Women semifinals and win the Israeli league title; she returned to Ramle again for the 2011 season after a year in Romania.[11] A 2016 U.S. State Department announcement noted that a coach involved in a PeacePlayers International exchange had been part of the first group of Israeli and Palestinian players to win the championship in the Israeli women's professional league.[12]

In November 2023, the Women's Basketball Super League resumed play after professional basketball had halted following the October 7 attack, with games held across five locations while sirens sounded in central Israel and Israeli forces were engaged in the south and north.[13] The absence of foreign players—normally permitted up to three per team—gave Israeli players, including younger athletes, expanded playing time and development opportunities.[13] That season also marked Hapoel Lev Jerusalem's first campaign in the top division following promotion; the club's opening win over Hapoel Rishon Lezion, 79–67 at Malha Arena, was described as historic for the franchise and was played with hostage posters displayed above the crowd and a moment of silence before tipoff.[13]

Maccabi Bnot Ashdod won the 2025 championship, defeating Hapoel Rishon Lezion 76–60 in the decisive fifth game of the playoff final—the club's seventh league title.[14] The 2025/26 season opened on September 29, 2025, with ten teams, welcoming Hapoel Be'er Sheva-Dimona as a first-time top-division entrant and Maccabi Karmiel Beit HaKerem as a returning side.[15]

Hapoel Rishon LeZion claimed its first women's Premier League championship in 2026, sweeping Elitzur Holon 3–0 in the playoff final, with the deciding game ending 100–69.[16] It was Holon's first playoff-final appearance since 1998.[16] The season concluded under unusual conditions: the league had been interrupted when conflict with Iran began, and only three foreign players agreed to come to Israel, leaving the two finalists with a combined total of just three non-Israeli-born players.[16] Under a special arrangement, a team could field at most one more foreign player than its opponent.[16] In the deciding game, Anastasia Boldyreva scored 23 points and Eden Tzipel added 20 for Rishon LeZion.[16]

The May 2023 playoff final had also produced a notable moment: Noor Kayuf, then 21, became the first and only Druze player in the women's Premier League as part of Elitzur Ramla's championship run, which concluded with a 3–2 comeback against Maccabi Bnot Ashdod.[17]

For the 2026/27 season, officially branded the Athena Winner Women's Basketball Premier League, the competition adopted a revised format of two regular-season rounds. The top six teams advance directly to the best-of-five playoffs.[18][19] Teams finishing seventh through tenth contest a play-in for the remaining two playoff spots, and the two teams that fall short play a best-of-five survival series.[19] The Russian rule remains in effect during the playoffs.[19]

Regular-season games are scheduled for Mondays, except for one featured game each week that is played on Sunday and broadcast live on the Sport Channel.[18][19]

The league has pursued an expanding role beyond competition. For the 2026/27 season, within a NIS 40 million government support framework for women's sports, the Israel Basketball Association received more than NIS 4 million designated for developing girls', youth, and women's basketball.[18][20] The league launched a "Team Builds Community" program in which each club adopted three community teams in its city for the season and organized a breast-cancer-awareness collaboration scheduled for October and November.[18][20] The Winner Cup final was planned for Kfar Blum as part of an effort to strengthen connections with northern communities and areas along the confrontation line.[18]

League chairwoman Dana Sander described the 2026/27 season as "a change in the game format and a broad plan to strengthen the league, increase exposure, and deepen the connection to the audience," adding that "Israeli female players and the community" are at the heart of the administration's work.[18] The season launch was held at Ono Academic College on September 16, 2026, with all league teams represented.[19]

The league's development has not been without friction. A 2016 Knesset committee document presented by the league administration asserted that women's basketball faced discriminatory treatment in the allocation of sports-betting council funds and called for budgetary parity with men's sports; the administration petitioned Israel's Supreme Court on the matter that year.[1] These were the positions advanced in that document rather than independent findings.

Financial instability has periodically threatened clubs. In November 2012, the 2011 EuroCup winner Elitzur Ramle could not meet Budget Control Authority requirements to open its season and was reported to carry debts exceeding NIS 1 million.[7][5] The club had also withdrawn from the EuroCup after two games because it could not afford travel costs.[7] The formation of the league's new administrative body in late 2011 coincided with a dispute between players and clubs, during which players alleged that the association had sought signatures on a document restricting their right to organize. The players disputed the legality of that document, though these remain reported claims rather than settled legal conclusions.[2]