Tamar Zandberg

Tamar “Tami” Zandberg was born on April 29, 1976.[1] Biographical sources generally place her birth in Ramat Gan, while a 2021 profile quotes her referring to the house where she was born in Givatayim.[1][8] Profiles also differ on where she grew up: one says Givatayim, while another says Ramat Gan.[8][9] She attended Blich High School and served in the Israel Defense Forces Education Corps; a profile describes her military service as a teacher-soldier with the Nature Reserves Authority.[10][8] Her parents were journalist Esther Zandberg and Yoel Zandberg, and her brother is former Israeli international football player Michael Zandberg.[10]

Zandberg studied psychology and economics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, social psychology at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and law at Tel Aviv University.[1][10] She pursued doctoral studies in political science at Ben-Gurion University, with one account specifying a research focus on spatial planning and human rights.[10] Before entering national politics, she taught public policy at Sapir Academic College.[1][10]

Zandberg began working in national politics in 2003 as an aide to Meretz Knesset member Ran Cohen, a position she held until 2008.[1] One account recalls Cohen sending her to meet women involved in Vicki Knafo’s protest, an experience she later described as teaching her to bring humanity into politics.[9] Sources disagree about when she entered Tel Aviv municipal politics: biographical accounts give 2008, while one Times of Israel profile says she was elected to the city council in 2003.[1][11] She served on the Tel Aviv City Council for Meretz and chaired its Women’s Affairs Committee.[1]

On the council, Zandberg also served on the Finance and Affordable Housing committees.[1] Her municipal advocacy included public transportation on Shabbat, civil and same-sex marriage, and support for female-run small businesses.[10] A separate account says she worked to expand city services for secular Israelis.[11] She became identified with urban environmentalism and social democracy, and held leadership roles in Na’amat’s Social Home faction, the Histadrut labor federation, and the Israel Bicycle Association.[1]

Zandberg was active in the summer 2011 social-protest movement over the cost of living. She participated in a group of experts that developed the movement’s housing and transportation platform.[1] One biographical account says that she and other Meretz council members left Mayor Ron Huldai’s coalition in response to what it termed the violent suppression of the protests.[10] After serving on the council during the protest period, Zandberg decided to seek national office.[9] She also participated in Women of the Wall demonstrations at the Western Wall.[1]

Zandberg was first elected to the Knesset in 2013 as one of six Meretz members.[1] At the time, the party emphasized human rights, social justice, and a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.[1] In her first term, she co-founded and chaired the Lobby for Sustainable Transportation, helped establish the Urban Renewal Lobby, and headed the Israeli Beaches Subcommittee.[10] Her committee work over her Knesset career included Internal Affairs and Environment, Biometric Identification, and the Status of Women and Gender Equality.[1]

She was re-elected in 2015, when she was fifth on the Meretz list. The party initially appeared likely to win only four seats, which would have left her outside the Knesset.[1] After ballots from soldiers, diplomats, and other voters who had not voted on Election Day were counted, Meretz gained a fifth seat, preserving her place in parliament.[1] Another account says party leader Zehava Gal-On offered to resign from the Knesset and party leadership so Zandberg could return as the fourth member; Zandberg urged her to reconsider, and the later count allowed Gal-On to remain.[10]

Following her re-election, Zandberg served on the Knesset’s Internal Affairs and Environment Committee and chaired the Committee on the Struggle Against Drugs and Alcohol.[10] She led or co-led parliamentary groups on social-environmental policy, sustainable transportation, and urban renewal.[10] She promoted additional bike paths and more efficient public transportation, including expanded service on Shabbat,[12] and received a Green Globe Award for work promoting environmental and sustainable legislation.[10] She also advocated for environmental protections and chaired the Knesset committee dealing with drug and alcohol abuse.[12]

In October 2013, Zandberg introduced a bill that proposed removing criminal penalties for personal cannabis use and possession of a small amount, while differentiating among offenses involving use, possession, distribution, and trade.[13] She argued for distinguishing substances and separating use from harmful use, and advocated an evidence-based approach that would treat users as people needing care rather than as offenders.[3] Her disclosure of personal marijuana use drew complaints, including a complaint to the Knesset Ethics Committee.[3] The episode brought public scrutiny to her cannabis advocacy, which also included efforts to ease restrictions on cannabis users.[12][3]

In March 2018, Zandberg won Meretz’s first open leadership primary, defeating Avi Buskila, a former executive director of Peace Now.[14] She received 71 percent of the vote, or 12,112 votes, compared with 4,851 votes, or 28.5 percent, for Buskila.[14] Of 31,679 eligible party members, 16,954 voted, a turnout of 53.6 percent.[14] The party had altered its rules to allow a broader public to join shortly before the primary.[14]

During the leadership campaign, Zandberg said she wanted Meretz to win at least ten Knesset seats and overcome its image as a marginal opposition party.[9] After her election, she said she wanted Meretz to pursue participation in a governing coalition, even if that required compromise on some issues.[14] Meretz was described as a left-of-center, pro-secular Zionist party that supported social justice and peace with the Palestinians, with a particular emphasis on a two-state solution.[15]

Under Zandberg, Meretz won four seats in the April 2019 election.[10] Nitzan Horowitz defeated her in a party leadership contest before the September 2019 election.[1][15] Meretz then joined the Democratic Israel Party in the Democratic Union, which won five seats in September 2019.[10] In 2020, Meretz ran with Labor-Gesher in an alliance that won seven seats, and in the March 2021 election the party ran independently and won six.[10] Zandberg remained a prominent Meretz figure and entered the 2021 government as minister of environmental protection.[2]

Zandberg became Minister of Environmental Protection in June 2021 in the government led by Naftali Bennett.[2] She said before taking office that she had specifically requested the portfolio and regarded climate policy as a priority, particularly because Israel had not yet enacted a climate law.[8] The government announced a national objective in July 2021 to reduce carbon emissions by at least 85 percent from 2015 levels by 2050, with an interim reduction target of 27 percent by 2030.[16] The stated goals also included a 30 percent reduction in electricity-sector emissions by 2030 and a 96 percent reduction in transportation emissions by 2050, each measured against 2015 levels.[16] These were government-wide goals, not targets attributable to Zandberg alone.[16]

Ahead of the November 2021 COP26 conference in Glasgow, the cabinet approved a climate plan intended to encourage climate innovation, develop emissions-reduction technologies, and prepare for climate impacts.[16] Its government implementation program, described as “100 Action Items,” included energy efficiency, low-carbon transportation, renewable-energy infrastructure, and climate technology.[16] Zandberg said a task force would address barriers to emissions-reduction technologies and climate preparedness, including obstacles involving waste and recycling.[16] She presented climate action as an opportunity for Israel to contribute through green technologies and cooperation with neighboring countries, citing work in solar-energy storage, sustainable protein alternatives, agricultural technology, and desalination.[17]

The climate bill promoted by Zandberg passed its first reading in the Knesset shortly before parliament was dissolved, but did not complete the legislative process during her term.[5][4] The proposal included a 27 percent emissions reduction target for 2030 relative to 2015 and a net-zero target for 2050, along with climate-risk assessment and government-planning mechanisms.[18] The ministry had also advanced the bill through the Ministerial Committee on Legislation and promoted funding for adaptation plans, including measures for municipalities, urban shading, flood prevention, and green construction.[5] A 2023 assessment described the bill as still in progress and noted that Israel remained among the OECD countries without a climate law.[5]

The proposal’s targets and provisions drew criticism. Reporting noted that Zandberg acknowledged the 2030 target was low, and that critics considered the bill weak.[18] A review of her tenure said the bill had been altered through negotiations with the Finance and Energy ministries: the targets could be changed by government decision, some infrastructure projects could be exempted from climate-impact assessment, and the bill did not pass before the Knesset was dissolved.[7] The ministry also established climate-related divisions, provided the Climate Administration with its first budget of NIS 1.5 million, and invested NIS 5 million in climate-risk mapping, according to that review.[7]

The government also approved a climate-technology program proposed by Zandberg together with the energy and innovation ministers, with an announced budget of NIS 3 billion.[19] The plan aimed to double the number of climate-technology start-ups from 55 in 2021 to 110 by 2026 and to encourage ten Israeli venture-capital funds specializing in the field by that year, compared with one at the time.[19] Zandberg characterized climate policy as an area that previous governments had “criminally neglected.”[19]

In a February 2022 interview, Zandberg argued that climate change should be treated as a national-security challenge for Israel.[6] She identified drought, warming, sea-level rise, desertification, flooding, and wildfires as risks, and warned that competition over resources and population movements associated with climate change could affect regional stability.[6] She noted that the National Security Council had included climate in its reference scenarios for the first time that year.[6] Her formulation was that “we need to understand that the environment doesn’t have borders.”[6]

Zandberg described regional cooperation as both a climate-policy opportunity and a security interest. She said she had met her Palestinian counterpart during the summer and that they had agreed on projects to pursue together; the account did not identify the counterpart or detail the projects.[6] She also spoke of professional cooperation on shared concerns such as water resources.[17] In her words, “Thus for the survival of our citizens, this demands that we be optimally prepared.”[6]

Ahead of COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh in November 2022, Zandberg hoped the conference would encourage stronger regional cooperation.[20] She was in talks with Egypt’s environmental minister, Yasmin Fuad, about establishing a Middle East climate forum.[20] In May 2022, the Israeli government had instructed ministries to prepare for the conference and promote joint environmental projects with Egypt.[20] At COP27, Israel and Jordan signed a declaration of intent to conserve and protect the Jordan River.[21] The measures described included wastewater-treatment facilities, upgraded sewer systems to prevent raw sewage discharges, more sustainable agriculture, control of farm runoff, and reduced pesticide use.[21] Zandberg connected reducing pollution and restoring ecosystems with adaptation to the climate crisis.[21]

Zandberg opposed expanding oil transport through the Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline, arguing that the Gulf of Eilat faced environmental risk and that Israel should not become an oil bridge.[7] Her ministry adopted a “zero additional risk” policy for the gulf, whose sensitive coral reef she cited as vulnerable to potentially irreversible damage from an oil spill.[7] Reporting described a proposed increase in annual transport from 10 million to about 20 million tons under an agreement intended to move oil from the United Arab Emirates through Israel.[7]

In 2021, the ministry restricted oil imports at Eilat to two million tons annually after judging the operator’s environmental risk surveys inadequate.[22] It also delayed implementation of the UAE pipeline provision as an interim measure pending government discussion and decision.[23] A later report said the government subsequently scrapped the restriction; the ministry had presented it as a way to limit oil-leak risk in the Gulf of Eilat.[22]

In July 2022, after nine years in the Knesset, Zandberg announced that she would take a break from politics and not run in the upcoming election.[24] She said she would support Meretz during the campaign and continue performing her ministerial duties until the end of her term.[24] In announcing her decision, she said she had shifted the Environmental Protection Ministry from a defensive posture to taking initiative; this was her own assessment of her record.[24] Her ministerial service ended with the term of the 36th Government, which ran from June 2021 to December 2022.[2]

In February 2024, Ben-Gurion University appointed Zandberg to head a new institute devoted to climate-policy research.[4] The institute was described as seeking to translate climate research into policy for government and industry and to connect academic research with local and national government and businesses.[4] The university also characterized its work as multidisciplinary research, public discussion, and policy analysis and recommendations for decision-makers.[25] The institute’s name appears in reporting as both the National Institute for Climate Policy Research and the Institute for the Design and Study of Climate Policy.[4][25]

Assessments of Zandberg’s ministerial record emphasized both new climate-policy initiatives and incomplete reforms. A Globes review described her record as mixed: environmental organizations regarded her as attentive and knowledgeable, while the review said that many promised reforms remained incomplete and that air pollution, waste, and chemicals did not receive top priority.[7] It reported that 80 percent of Israel’s waste was being landfilled and discussed a proposed environmental licensing reform that could extend some business permits from seven to about ten years while adding routes to challenge professional decisions.[7] These were the review’s evaluation and reported figures, rather than uncontested measures of Zandberg’s personal performance.[7]

Her proposed climate law and oil-transport policy were also subjects of public debate. Critics described the climate bill as weak, while assessments pointed to compromises, possible exemptions, and the fact that it failed to pass before the Knesset was dissolved.[18][7] The oil restriction was challenged in the context of the proposed UAE pipeline arrangement, while Zandberg and her ministry emphasized the environmental risks to the Gulf of Eilat.[23][7]

Zandberg’s 2024 university appointment drew criticism on social media alleging political patronage and questioning her academic qualifications. University figures defended the choice; the dean said she had presented an impressive work plan and was the best candidate.[25] Separately, a media clipping hosted by the Herzl Institute carried an allegation that Zandberg asked Yair Lapid to appoint her husband, Uri Zaki, to the Herzl Center. The clipping did not establish what Lapid might have received in return, and the allegation is not an independently verified finding.[26]