Women’s rights activist Moran Zer Katzenstein joins Golan’s Democrats party

Yair Golan’s left-wing Democrats party announces that protest leader and women’s rights advocate Moran Zer Katzenstein is joining the faction ahead of upcoming elections.

Zer Katzenstein will run in the as yet unscheduled internal party primaries for a position on the slate.

Zer Katzenstein is best known as the founder of Bonot Alternativa or “building an alternative,” a woman-led protest movement that rose to prominence during the 2023 demonstrations against the government’s contentious judicial overhaul. The group drew particular attention for its “handmaid protests,” donning red robes and white caps dressed as characters from Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” to protest violence against women and attacks on women’s rights.

A former Shin Bet officer and marketing executive at companies including Google and Playtika, Zer Katzenstein was inspired to form the group following the 2020 gang rape of a 16-year-old girl in Eilat.

Golan welcomes the move, saying Zer Katzenstein is joining the party “at a moment when the struggle for women’s equality is a struggle over Israel’s security and identity” and calling her “one of the most prominent voices” speaking out against increasing extremism.

He says that as part of a future governing coalition, the Democrats will seek to anchor gender equality in a Basic Law, advance civil marriage, curb the powers of rabbinical courts, and establish a national authority to combat gender-based violence.

Zer Katzenstein says she is proud to join “the most values-driven, fighting and democratic party,” especially as the current government seeks to “dismantle and shatter the entire liberal value system.”