Chubb Fellowship to Host Israeli Political Leader

Tzipi Livni, a member of the Israeli parliament and head of the Kadima party, will speak at Yale University as a Chubb Fellow on October 8 at 4:30 p.m. in the Levinson Auditorium of Yale Law School, 127 Wall St.

The talk is free and open to the public.

Livni is a strong proponent of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. In 2007, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world. She has appeared on the Forbes list of most powerful women in the world since 2006.

Livni was first elected to the Knesset as a member of the Likud party in 1999 and served on the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee and the Committee on the Status of Women. In 2001, with the election of Ariel Sharon, she helped formulate the Gaza Disengagement Plan. She has served in numerous cabinet positions: Minister for Regional Cooperation, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Minister of Immigrant Absorption and Minister of Housing and Construction. She was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2009 and Minister of Justice from 2004 to 2007. In May 2006, she was appointed Vice Prime Minister.

At the end of 2005, Livni, together with Sharon and other moderates, formed the centrist Kadima party. In September 2008 she was elected Kadima party chair, and in April 2009 she became the leader of the opposition party in the Israeli parliament.

Livni received her law degree from Bar-Ilan University and practiced law in a private firm for 10 years before entering public life. Prior to her election to the Knesset, she served as director general of the Government Companies Authority, where she was in charge of the privatization of government-owned companies.

The Chubb Fellowship was designed to encourage Yale College students in the operations of government, culture and public service. Established in 1936 through the generosity of Hendon Chubb (Yale 1895), the program brings three or four distinguished women and men to campus every year to give public lectures and interact informally with students. Former Chubb Fellows include Presidents Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter and Raul Alfonsín of Argentina; Prime Ministers Clement Atlee (UK) and Mario Soares (Portugal); authors Toni Morrison and Carlos Fuentes; choreographer Mikhail Baryshnikov; journalist Walter Cronkite; and feminist Gloria Steinem.