MK wants a Knesset powder room

In light of the long hours required of Israeli parliamentarians when the Knesset is in session, women MKs should have a dedicated power room where they can apply cosmetics and make themselves more presentable — at least according to Yesh Atid MK Ruth Calderon.

“The entry of women into the Knesset entails new needs, different from those of men… When you’re there for 12 hours and then have to appear on television, there is need for makeup,” Calderon was quoted by Ynet as saying Thursday.

Calderon reportedly asked Knesset Director-General Ronen Plot to have a dedicated room set aside for the use of women MKs, noting, however, that the MKs would pay for the makeup service out of their own pockets.

Plot said that Calderon mentioned the idea to him in passing, but that there had been no formal request.

Calderon’s idea was critiqued by MK Miri Regev (Likud), who called it “detached” and “extravagant.”

It’s “ridiculous,” Regev charged, that while “we’re busy approving the budget and the public is struggling to make ends meet… we’ll be dealing with setting up a makeup room in the Knesset.” Female MKs can continue to buy makeup and apply it on their own, she added.

It bears mention that Calderon, like other MKs, has a Knesset office where she could presumably apply makeup, or have it applied by a professional. The freshman MK’s powder room request is the latest in a series of comments perceived by critics as frivolous or elitist.

In early June, in response to a question on Facebook, Calderon lamented that becoming an MK was in effect a pay cut, because after taxes she only takes home NIS 24,000 ($6,600) a month, less than she made before, when, she said, she “worked three jobs.”

The average monthly salary in Israel is roughly NIS 9,000 ($2,500) before taxes. Calderon’s salary before taxes is some NIS 38,000, more than four times the average.

“I’m a single parent and I support a house and children,” Calderon said, and becoming a Knesset member had meant a “significant reduction in income.”

Several weeks later, she gushed on Facebook about meeting Barbra Streisand and designer Donna Karan, creator of the DKNY line. “I was excited to meet Donna Karan,” Calderon wrote, “who gave us veteran working women feminine clothing that’s sleek and full of power.”

Calderon was lambasted by commenters on her post who noted that the cost of Karan’s outfits — a perusal of the Donna Karan website shows that dresses begin at around $1,000 — was prohibitive for all but the most wealthy of Israelis, and that the post was insensitive given the context: steep tax hikes and other austerity measures, led by her party’s chairman, Finance Minister Yair Lapid.

“Donna Karan doesn’t give anything. Donna Karan sells, to women who can afford to buy Donna Karan,” read one response that garnered many “likes.”

“You don’t have anything better to do?” asked a second commentator, while another took Calderon to task for depicting Karan as “a Salvation Army volunteer,” when in fact she was a savvy businesswoman who sells her clothes at “exorbitant” prices.

Calderon was lauded by many Israelis for a moving inaugural address, but has since attracted media attention mostly for her Facebook gaffes, not unlike other figures in her party.