Israeli liberals aghast at Netanyahu's choice of justice minister

She has criticised the Israeli military-run Army Radio for its "left-leaning agenda", supports the deportation of African immigrants and seeks to curb the power of non-governmental organisations and the Supreme Court.

Ayelet Shaked, a 39-year-old political newcomer some have likened to the Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor, has been named justice minister in Benjamin Netanyahu's new coalition government.

The powerful role will give her a say in judicial appointments and chairmanship of a Knesset committee that decides which bills are passed into become law.

The rapid rise of Ms Shaked - sealed in a last-minute coalition deal between Mr Netanyahu's Likud and Naftali Bennett's far-right Jewish Home party - has raised concerns among moderate and leftwing Israelis over future democratic checks and balances.

Nachman Shai, an MP with the centre-left Zionist Union, said handing Ms Shaked the justice portfolio was "like giving the fire and rescue services to a pyromaniac". Saeb Erekat, the Palestinians' chief negotiator, has accused her of "openly calling for the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people".

During last summer's Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip, Ms Shaked was criticised after quoting on her Facebook page the words of a pro-settler journalist who likened the children of Palestinians who harmed Israelis to "little snakes".

Ms Shaked posted the quote a day before Mohammed Abu Khdeir, a Jerusalem Arab teenager, was beaten and burnt to death by a group of Jews in revenge for the killing of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister and a fierce critic of Israel, compared her behaviour to that of Adolf Hitler. Ms Shaked, who was not available for comment, says her words were taken out of context.

With Mr Netanyahu's government set to be sworn in the coming days, critics have pointed to Ms Shaked's lack of formal legal training and slim political resume; she was elected as an MP only in 2013.

However, Mr Bennett calls Ms Shaked "a thoughtful, intelligent and talented person who has been my right-hand partner in politics since the beginning".

"She has proven herself as an excellent parliamentarian, and I have no doubt that she will serve Israel as justice minister in the same way," the Jewish Home leader said via a spokesman.

In her justice role, Ms Shaked will sit on the committee that appoints judges, and has called for a stronger government role in the body. She is among several in the incoming government who think Israel's Supreme Court is too powerful and has a leftwing bias, although she had conciliatory words for the institution on Tuesday, saying: "We are proud of our Supreme Court".

"Judicial reforms should make us worried," says Mikhael Manekin, managing director of Molad, a think-tank. "The minute the executive is stronger and the judiciary becomes less powerful, it become more difficult, for example, to protect minorities."

Ms Shaked has previously backed a "nation state" bill enshrining Israel as a Jewish state, despite its Arab minority. She also favours a proposed law limiting foreign funding for NGOs, which critics say if approved would put Israel in a league with Vladimir Putin's Russia.

Yet much of the criticism directed at her has been of a sexist nature.

Yosef Paritsky, a former minister, said Ms Shaked could "star as a calendar pin-up in garages". A gossip column in Yedioth Ahronoth, in a write-up of a visit by Ms Shaked to a spa, reported she took a dip in the facility's pool but "unfortunately kept her clothes on".

The Knesset speaker this week ordered assigned bodyguards to Ms Shaked after she received death threats. He said he was especially worried by photoshopped images of the politician on social media wearing a Nazi SS uniform, which reminded some of posters of Yitzhak Rabin that circulated before he was assassinated in 1995.

The tawdry tone of much of the discussion has detracted from the weightier issues at stake, and obscured a more salient fact: Mr Netanyahu's government, with 61 of the Knesset's 120 seats, will probably struggle to get much of anything done.

Animosity between Mr Netanyahu and Ms Shaked's party remains after a bitter election campaign and tough coalition talks.

The prime minister, after ruling out a coalition with Zionist Union during the campaign, now says he would welcome it to broaden his government - a move that would allow him to expel Jewish Home.

Ms Shaked, whose background is in Israel's technology industry, worked as director of his office from 2006 to 2008, leaving after a reported dispute with Sara, Mr Netanyahu's wife.

The justice minister will face serious constraints. Moshe Kahlon, the incoming finance minister who heads the centre-right Kulanu party, won as part of his coalition deal with Likud the right to vote against any measure to weaken the Supreme Court.

"The left want to show how terrible things are with Shaked, but her power is limited," says Yehuda Benmeir, senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies, a think-tank. "There is no majority in this Knesset for any law that would change the composition of the committee that chooses Supreme Court judges."

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