Key Facts
Career & Education
About
Limor Ahava Livnat is a former Israeli politician who served as a Likud member of the Knesset from April 14, 1992, to March 31, 2015 (Knessets 12–19). Her ministerial positions included Minister of Communications (June 18, 1996–July 6, 1999, under Netanyahu I), Minister of Education, Culture and Sport (March 7, 2001–January 14, 2006, under Sharon I & II), and Minister of Culture and Sport (March 31, 2009–May 14, 2015, under Netanyahu II & III). Key achievements encompass promoting telecom competition (e.g., Partner cellular, YES satellite TV), education reforms (Ofek Shani program, meitzav tests, pre-military academies law), and culture/sport initiatives (national sports council, Toto funds to sports clubs).
Born in Haifa to Azriel Livnat (also known as Azriel Weiss, a Lehi fighter exiled by the British to Africa) and Shulamit Livnat (a singer and Palmach fighter), she is the seventh generation of her family in the Land of Israel. Her brother is Noam Livnat, a right-wing activist and former head of the Homat Magen headquarters. The family later moved to Ramat Gan. She attended Ahlel Shem High School in Ramat Gan and Devir High School, studied Hebrew literature at Tel Aviv University (serving as deputy chair of the student union but did not complete her degree), and served in the IDF as an education and welfare NCO in the Armored Corps. Before entering politics, she worked as an advertising executive.
She joined Herut (predecessor to Likud) in 1970 as a supporter of Menachem Begin and headed Likud's youth organization in 1977. In the Knesset, she chaired the Committee for the Advancement of the Status of Women (1993–1994) and held various roles in committees including Education and Culture, Labor/Welfare/Health, Finance, Foreign Affairs and Defense, Constitution/Law and Justice, Anti-Drug Abuse, and State Comptroller. She was also Vice Chairwoman and Acting Chairwoman of the World Likud Movement. A secular right-wing conservative and Revisionist Zionist, she opposed the Oslo Accords but supported Sharon's disengagement. She left Likud in February 2021 after 51 years, protesting Benjamin Netanyahu's agreement with the Religious Zionist Party, and supported Gideon Sa'ar and New Hope.
Notable controversies include resigning from the Netanyahu government in 1997 amid tensions and an attempt to oust him as Likud leader; a 2005 State Comptroller investigation into budget increases to her mother's association and her ex-husband's dealings (no findings); the 2011 killing of her nephew Ben-Joseph Livnat (25) by a Palestinian policeman at Joseph's Tomb, which she called terrorism; support for gender segregation on ultra-Orthodox public transport in 2011; clashes with artists over the Ariel theater (2010) and film funding (2014); and primaries disputes (2013). In November 2025, she was convicted of hit-and-run after confessing.
Divorced with two children, she has been in a relationship with Michael Yerushalmi (chairman of Orna Porat Theatre) since 2008 and resides in Tel Aviv. Post-politics, she has served as voluntary chair of the Foundation for the Welfare of Holocaust Victims since 2015, published her autobiography Your Husband Allows You? - Limor Livnat Without Fear in June 2024 (Yediot Books), and received the Dove Forum Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022 for women's advancement.