Streamlined coronavirus cabinet: 10 men, no women

The formation of a slimmed-down coronavirus cabinet on Sunday further increased tensions within the coalition, as several ministers objected to their exclusion from the new panel. The complete absence of women was widely condemned.

The government decided to reduce the size of the coronavirus cabinet from 16 to 10 to make its decision-making process more efficient. But the decision upset ministers who were excluded, including some from the Likud.

Housing and Construction Minister Ya’acov Litzman (United Torah Judaism), who previously served as the health minister and was on the previous coronavirus cabinet, reportedly

stormed out of the full cabinet meeting Sunday morning, saying his nearly 10 years of experience leading the Health Ministry would have been an important resource for the coronavirus cabinet.

Litzman voted against the establishment of the new cabinet.

Education Minister Yoav Gallant (Likud) criticized his exclusion from the new coronavirus cabinet, Channel 12 reported. He said during Sunday morning’s meeting he had “several times received information on policies affecting his ministry through the media” instead of through government channels, the report said.

In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told him he would be invited to coronavirus cabinet hearings when his ministry was involved in the issue at hand.

Environmental Protection Minister Gila Gamliel (Likud) said the new coronavirus cabinet was “pathetic,” adding that the inclusion of the science and technology minister at the expense of the education minister was “illogical.”

Social Equality Minister and Minorities Minister Meirav Cohen (Blue and White), who also was removed from the coronavirus cabinet, asked Netanyahu why there were no women on the body.

According to multiple reports, Netanyahu responded: “I also sometimes ask in the middle of the night why traffic lights are red. There are many things that aren’t logical.” The cabinet needed to have the correct ratio of ministers from the coalition parties, meaning that Cohen could not be included, he reportedly said.

Several women’s-rights groups criticized the exclusion of women from the cabinet and Netanyahu’s comments.

The government should be concerned it has put up a “‘red light” to equal representation for women in the decision-making centers,” and it should act to rectify the situation immediately, Women’s International Zionist Organization chairwoman Anita Friedman said.

“While women lead the fight against the epidemic in the majority of Western countries, Israel is excluding women from the junctures of policy making in one of the worse humanitarian crises that humanity has known,” she said, adding that the prime minister should include female ministers in the cabinet.

Opposition leader MK Yair Lapid denounced the exclusion of women from the panel, saying: “[It is] the biggest government in the history of the country, and they did not put one woman [in the coronavirus cabinet]. Disconnected chauvinists.”

The Na’amat women’s-rights group decried the removal of Transportation Minister Miri Regev (Likud) and Cohen from the new cabinet and the absence of any women on it.

“I recommend to the prime minister and the alternate prime minister, who always compare our situation to the rest of the world, to look at the common denominator of countries that have successfully subdued the epidemic – in all of them, women are in the decision-making elite,” Na’amat said in a press release.

The new coronavirus cabinet comprises Netanyahu, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein, Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz, Finance Minister Israel Katz, Public Security Minister Amir Ohana, Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, Science and Technology Minister Izhar Shay, Justice Minister Avi