Party: Kadima

Knesset Profile: Tzipi Livni

Tzipi Livni was elected chairman of the Kadima party on September 17. In her post as Foreign Minister, Livni has led the Israeli team negotiating with the Palestinian Authority.

Palestinians have expressed frustration with Livni's unwillingness to discuss certain key issues, such as the rights of Palestinian refugees who in 1948 fled in fear or were expelled from their homes in what is now the state of Israel. In a 2007 interview with the New York Times, referring to the issue of Palestinian refugees, Livni declared that "Israel is not part of the solution."

International law, however, is clear on this issue. All refugees have an internationally recognized right to return to areas from which they have fled or were forced, to receive compensation for damages, and to either regain their properties or receive compensation and support for voluntary resettlement. In the specific case of the Palestinians, this right was affirmed by United Nations Resolution 194 of 1948, and has been reaffirmed repeatedly by that same body, and has also been recognized by independent organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

In a further blow, in 2008 Livni stated that upon the establishment of a Palestinian state, Palestinians should remove the word 'Nakba' - which refers to the mass expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and homeland by Jewish militias in 1948 - from their lexicon. The Nakba is the defining Palestinian experience. Asking them to remove it from their lexicon - and hence their consciousness - is akin to asking Americans to forget the attacks of September 11, 2001. Palestinians contend that, as the case of South Africa proves, a just future can only be built by acknowledging the injustices of the past.

Livni was born in Tel Aviv in 1958. Her parents were both prominent members of the Irgun, a Jewish underground terrorist group responsible for numerous attacks against Palestinian civilians and the British forces that controlled Palestine during the Mandate period. Livni began her career in the early 1980s working for the Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, in Europe, where Britain's The Times alleged in an article earlier this year that she had been involved in high-level operations aimed at assassinating several prominent Palestinian political figures living in Europe.

In 1999, Livni was elected to the Knesset as a member of the Likud party. Livni rose to the top ranks of Likud after being appointed to several cabinet positions under former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. She was one of the strongest supporters of Sharon's plan for unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip. In 2005, she joined Sharon's Kadima party, and was the third candidate on the party's list in the March 2006 Israeli general election. Since 2006, Livni has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and head of the Israeli team responsible for negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.

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