Business and technologyאלונה ברקת

Alona Barkat

Alona Barkat is an Israeli businesswoman and the owner of the Hapoel Be'er Sheva football club, which she bought in 2007.

born 1969Owning Hapoel Be'er ShevaFirst woman football club owner in IsraelLeague titles from 2016 to 2018

Born: 24 June 1969, Ashkelon
Occupation: businessperson
Party: New Right
Education: Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Alona Barkat was born in 1969 in Ashkelon

Alona Barkat was born Alona Akwa in Ashkelon in 1969, the eldest of 4 children of Yemenite Jewish parents. At 14 she moved to Jerusalem to study at a religious school for girls. She later returned to Ashkelon for national service.

She earned bachelor's and master's degrees in Middle East history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. There she met her future husband, Eli Barkat.

In 1996 the couple moved to Silicon Valley, where she began work in philanthropy and was active in AIPAC and the Jewish Federation of San Francisco. The family returned to Israel in 2004.

In 2007 she bought Hapoel Be'er Sheva and became the first woman in Israel to own a football club. Under her ownership the team won the league title in 2016, 2017 and 2018. She left the club in March 2020 after a dispute over player salaries and returned to lead it by February 2021.

In 2019 she ran third on the New Right list, but the party did not pass the electoral threshold. She lives in Tel Aviv with her husband and their 3 children.