Orit Strock

Orit Strock is not a figure of broad consensus; her public standing is shaped above all by the deep commitment of one camp and the sharp rejection of another. As Minister of Settlements and National Missions, a resident of the Jewish neighborhood of Hebron and the founder of the Human Rights Organization of Judea and Samaria, she is seen by the settlement movement as a veteran standard-bearer and by her critics as one of the government's hard-line voices — so the verdict on her is a product of polarization, not of a lukewarm middle position. Several of her remarks have caused uproar, including her 2022 support for allowing service providers, doctors among them, to refuse services that conflict with their religious beliefs when an alternative is available, and her 2024 description of the settlement surge in Judea and Samaria as "a time of miracles." She opposed hostage deals that involved withdrawing from the Netzarim and Philadelphi corridors and releasing Palestinian prisoners held for terror offenses, and in 2025 she boycotted the Judicial Selection Committee session at which Yitzhak Amit was chosen as president of the Supreme Court — which makes her standing especially sensitive to coalition disputes and settlement news. Ahead of the election for the 26th Knesset she won first place in her party's primary, but after the alliance with Zehut she was placed third, behind Bezalel Smotrich and Moshe Feiglin, on a list formed to make sure it clears the electoral threshold. Her base is more defined and committed than it is broad: growing influence in the national-religious bloc or an expansion of her powers would strengthen her standing, while friction within the coalition or the sidelining of settlement on the national agenda would weaken it. In this she resembles government allies such as Idit Silman, whose standing likewise rests mainly on the right-wing camp.