Yulia Malinovsky

Yulia Malinovsky
Malinovsky in 2020
Faction represented in the Knesset
2016–2018	Yisrael Beiteinu
2019–	Yisrael Beiteinu
Personal details
Born	(1975-09-05) 5 September 1975 Voroshilovgrad, Soviet Union

Yulia Malinovsky Kunin (Hebrew: יוליה מלינובסקי קונין, Russian: Юлия Малиновская, Yuliya Malinovskaya; born 5 September 1975) is a Ukrainian-born Israeli politician, lawyer and former local police officer. She is currently a member of the Knesset for Yisrael Beiteinu.

Early life and education

Malinovsky was born in Voroshilovgrad in the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union (today Luhansk in Ukraine). Her mother, Sophia, is Jewish, and her father, Vladimir, was of Russian, Greek and Armenian descent. She studied law at the Luhansk branch of the East Ukrainian Volodymyr Dahl National University, gaining a BA. She served in a local police force as a manpower officer. Malinovsky immigrated to Israel from Ukraine in 1998. Her younger sister had immigrated before her with NAALE in 1997, and the rest of her immediate family joined her in Israel later.

Political career

Malinovsky was elected to Holon City Council on the Yisrael Beiteinu list in 2003. She was placed eighteenth on the party's list for the 2009 Knesset elections. However, the party won only 15 seats, and she failed to win election. She was 37th on the joint Likud–Yisrael Beiteinu list for the 2013 Knesset elections, but once again failed to win a seat.

Prior to the 2015 Knesset elections, she was placed ninth on the party's list. Although Yisrael Beiteinu won only six seats, the resignation of several MKs saw her enter the Knesset on 1 June 2016 as a replacement for Avigdor Lieberman, after he had resigned from the Knesset under the Norwegian Law following his appointment as Minister of Defense. After Lieberman resigned as Defence Minister in November 2018, he returned to the Knesset in place of Malinovsky.

Malinovsky was placed fifth on the Yisrael Beiteinu list for the April 2019 elections, and returned to the Knesset as the party won five seats. She was in fifth place again for the September 2019 elections, retaining her seat as Yisrael Beiteinu won eight seats. In 2023 Malinovsky called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a "traitor, a liar, and a fraudster", but apologized for her comments.

In May 2024, Malinovsky authored a bill that, if approved, would designate the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) as a terrorist organization. In the bill's introduction, she wrote, "The purpose of this bill is to declare UNRWA as a terrorist organization for all intents and purposes as well as order the termination of the relations [and the cooperation] of the State of Israel with the agency, either directly or indirectly.”

Personal life

Malinovsky lives in Holon, and is married with two children.

External links

• Yulia Malinovsky on the Knesset website