IMAGINE Leaders – Stav Shaffir

Stav Shaffir

SHIRA, Founder

Stav Shaffir was the youngest woman ever elected as a member of parliament in Israel, where she served for seven years. Previously she was one of the leaders of the Israeli social movement that brought hundreds of thousands of Israelis into the streets in the summer of 2011, and became Israel’s biggest- ever protest for social justice and democracy. A year after the protests, Shaffir ran for a position on the Labour party list, and got elected in a nationwide primary. She became an MP at age 27 and a member of the Finance Committee, where she led a reform for budgetary transparency, exposed the government’s secret money transfers, and fought to end corrupt usage of tax-payer money. Two years later, she won the second seat on her party list, and founded the Transparency Committee of parliament, where she served as chairperson for four years. In 2017 she became the chair of the OECD parliamentary committee for transparency and anti-corruption. In 2019, Israel entered a political turmoil of four consecutive electionsleading to no result. Shaffir realised that the only way to stop the attack on democratic institutions would be to create a cross-party, democratic unionbetween fractions on the center-left. Today, Shaffir is focusing on social entrepreneurship. She is the founder of the Shira Center; a unique program for young adults with autism and special needs.

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