Bennett announces 4 more female party candidates, says Together slate includes 17 women

By Sam Sokol 4 August 2026, 10:24 am

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Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"

Former prime minister Naftali Bennnett, center, with four newly announced female candidates on his Together slate -- (L-R) Esti Ayalon Kobo, Olesia Kantor, Bruria Naim Arman and Orly Harel -- in an image published on August 4, 2026. (Courtesy/Together)

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett adds four more women to his Together party’s electoral list, bringing the number of women running for the Knesset on his joint slate with Yesh Atid to 17, the party announces.

Bennett has previously said that any future government led by him would advance a move to fill 50% of all senior public service positions with women within five years and named former senior officials Keren Terner and Liran Avisar Ben-Horin as members of his list.

The latest additions are Orly Harel, Bruria Naim Arman, Esti Ayalon Kobo and Olesia Kantor.

Harel is an entrepreneur with experience in artificial intelligence and a former Likud activist who established that party’s women’s forum in Jerusalem.

Arman is a public relations specialist and Together’s founding director general who previously held senior positions on the staff of the transportation and deputy defense ministries.

The Ethiopian-born Kobo previously served as the head of Israel’s economic mission in China and “represented the State of Israel in numerous international economic forums,” the party says.

Kantor is a Russian-born domestic violence survivor who established a philanthropic fund assisting battered women and children and, after the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, started the Heart of Fire initiative, which “provides individual and group care free of charge to survivors who were on the front lines and are dealing with post-trauma and anxiety,” the statement says.

The four new candidates represent “a true Israeli mosaic of top-tier women of action, each in her own field,” says Bennett, adding that Together “has a female majority, not because of gender, but because of a simple decision we made when we set out on this path: to include the best men and women.”