Orit Strook

Orit Strook
Official portrait, 2023
Ministerial roles
2022–	Minister of Settlements and National Missions
Faction represented in the Knesset
2013–2015	Jewish Home
2021–	Mafdal–Religious Zionism
Personal details
Born	Orit Malka Cohen (1960-03-15) 15 March 1960 (age 64) Jerusalem
Spouse	Avraham Strook
Children	11

Orit Malka Strook (Hebrew: אוֹרִית מַלְכָּה סְטְרוֹק, born 15 March 1960) is a far-right Israeli politician. She serves as the Minister of Settlements and National Missions in the thirty-seventh government,^[1] and is a member of the Knesset for the National Religious Party–Religious Zionism, and served as member of the Knesset for Tkuma (a faction within the Jewish Home) between 2013 and 2015. Strook is also among the leaders of the Jewish settlement in Hebron, and she established the Israeli non-governmental organization Human Rights Organization of Judea and Samaria, which she headed between 2004 and 2012.^[2]

Orit Cohen (later Strook) was born to a family of lawyers from Jerusalem. Her middle name Malka was given to her in memory of her grandmother, the Hungarian Jewish poet Mária Kecskeméti [he]. Growing up, Strook studied at the Hebrew University Secondary School. In the late 1970s, while she was in the 11th grade, Strook gradually became more religious; she eventually became a ba'alat teshuva and embraced Orthodox Judaism. During that period, she began studying at the religious Zionist^[3] Machon Meir yeshiva and outreach organization. Shortly thereafter, she married Avraham Strook, a student of Rabbi Haim Drukman. The young couple briefly lived in the settlement of Yamit in the Sinai Peninsula, but, after the Sinai was handed over to Egypt in 1982 as part of the terms of the 1979 peace treaty, and Yamit was evacuated, Strook and her family joined the Jewish settler community in Hebron.

In 2007, Strook's son Zvi was convicted of abusing a Palestinian boy and killing a young goat, and spent thirty months in an Israeli prison as a result. In response to the ruling, Strook stated that, "Unlike the Court, who preferred to believe the Arab witnesses, we are sure of Zvi's innocence, and are hurting from the success of his haters and would assist him to deal with the difficult sentence imposed on him".^[4][5][6]

As of 2013, Strook is a resident of the Avraham Avinu settlement in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank. She has eleven children and twelve grandchildren.

After the Cave of the Patriarchs was closed to Jewish worshippers following the 1994 massacre, Strook was elected as the head of the Women's Committee for the Cave (Hebrew: ועד נשים למען המערה), and worked to convince the political system to re-open the Cave for Jewish visitors.^[7] Since 2000, she has headed the legal-political department of the organization of Jewish settlers in Hebron. Following the Israeli government's 2002 evacuation of a family of Jewish settlers from an area of Kiryat Arba, Strook founded the Human Rights Organization of Judea and Samaria to advocate for settlers.^[7]

Strook was placed thirteenth on the joint National Union–National Religious Party list for the 2006 elections, but failed to win a seat as the alliance won only nine seats.

In the 2013 elections, Strook was elected to the Knesset on The Jewish Home list.^[8] She is among the Knesset's most vehement opponents to recognition of non-Orthodox movements of Judaism.^[9] She was placed thirteenth on the party's list for the 2015 elections,^[10] losing her seat as the party was reduced to eight seats. For the September 2019 Israeli legislative election and 2020 Israeli legislative election, she was placed tenth on Yamina list, but did not make into the Knesset since Yamina only won seven in the September and six in the March elections.^{[citation needed]}

For the 2021 elections, Strook was placed fifth on Religious Zionist Party's list,^[11] and returned to the Knesset, as the alliance won six seats.^[12] In December 2022, Strook suggested that doctors could refuse to treat gay people if it conflicted with their religious beliefs.^[13]

Strook criticized Israeli security officials who called attacks against Palestinians by Jewish settlers in the West Bank "terrorism". Strook compared these officials to the Wagner Group.^[14]

In May 2024, Strook opposed a potential agreement for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas War, which proposed Israel halting hostilities in exchange for Hamas releasing Israeli hostages. In response to American efforts to negotiate a ceasefire, Strook said that the United States "doesn't deserve to be called a friend of the State of Israel".^[15][16]

• Orit Strook on the Knesset website