Dalia Itzik Is Born

October 20, 1952

Dalia Itzik is born in Jerusalem to a family of Iraqi immigrants. Itzik received a BA from Hebrew University, a teacher’s diploma from the Efrata Teacher’s Seminary and a law degree from the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliyah.

After serving for five years at the chairperson of the Jerusalem Teachers Union, Dalia Itzik was elected to the Jerusalem City Council in 1989 with the portfolio of deputy mayor in charge of education. In 1992, as a member of the Labor Party, she was elected to the Thirteenth Knesset. As a Knesset member, Itzik has served on a wide variety of committees and been the chair of both the Education and Culture Committee and Science and technology Committee.

In 1999, Prime Minister Ehud Barak appointed Dalia Itzik as Minister of the Environment. She would later serve as Minister of Trade and Labor and Minister of Communications under Ariel Sharon. Itzik left the Labor Party in 2005 to join the newly formed centrist Kadima party which was led by Ariel Sharon. In the Seventeenth Knesset, she became the first woman to serve as Speaker of the Knesset. Itzik retired from politics in 2012.