Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has appointed Michal Cotler-Wunsh, a human-rights lawyer and former lawmaker for the Blue and White Party, as the country’s antisemitism envoy.
“At a time of growing polarization, intersecting global and local challenges, and the blurring of lines between online hate and real-world harm, I accept the position of Israel’s special envoy for combating antisemitism,” announced Cotler-Wunsh.
Cotler-Wunsh said she accepted Foreign Minister Eli Cohen’s offer “with a tremendous sense of responsibility.”
She vowed to “continue serving the Jewish people, the State of Israel and the universal principles of life and liberty for all to comprehensively identify and combat the scourge of antisemitism in all its forms.”
An international law, human-rights and free-speech expert, Cotler-Wunsh earned degrees from the Hebrew University Faculty of Law in Jerusalem and McGill University Faculty of Law in Montreal. She held a number of legal positions and worked in education before entering the 2019-20 Knesset with Benny Gantz’s Blue and White Party.
As a lawmaker, Cotler-Wunsh headed efforts to develop and strengthen connections between Israel and the Diaspora, raising awareness and providing exposure to both challenges and opportunities for new immigrants (olim) to Israel.
She also co-founded the Interparliamentary Bi-Partisan Task Force to Combat Online Antisemitism with lawmakers from Canada, Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom.
