Keti Shitrit

Katrin Shitrit-Peretz (Hebrew: קְטָרִין שִׁטְרִית־פֶּרֶץ, born 22 January 1960) is an Israeli politician. She currently serves as a member of the Knesset for Likud.

Biography

Shitrit was born in Casablanca in Morocco. Her family immigrated to Israel in 1962 when she was eighteen months old, initially living in a ma'abara in Lod. She joined the Betar youth movement, and studied for a BA in political science and an MA in public administration at Bar-Ilan University, also gaining a teacher training certificate at Beit Berl Academic College. She worked in schools in Beit Shemesh and Dimona and established a school for modern dance in Kfar Saba. She also headed the office of Beit Shemesh mayor Daniel Vaknin between 1993 and 2008, before serving as the city's Financial Director from 2008 until 2010, during which she also lectured at Bar-Ilan University and the College of Management Academic Studies.

A long-time Likud activist, Shitrit headed the offices of Likud MKs Gideon Sa'ar and Yisrael Katz, before becoming a strategist for Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat. She was placed thirty-first on the Likud list for the 2009 Knesset elections, but failed to win a seat as Likud won 27 seats. She was thirty-eighth on the joint Likud Yisrael Beiteinu list for the 2013 elections, but the alliance won only 31 seats. The following year she was forced to give up her place on the list (which would have allowed her to enter the Knesset as a replacement for a resigning MK) as she was working for Katz in the Ministry of Transportation. Between 2016 and 2019 she worked as an advisor to Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat. Prior to the April 2019 elections she was given the thirtieth place on the Likud list, and was elected to the Knesset as the party won 35 seats. She was subsequently re-elected in the early elections in September the same year.

Shitrit is married with three children and lives in Beit Shemesh. Her son Moshe is deputy mayor of the city.