Orit Farkash-HaCohen

Orit Farkash-HaCohen was born in 1970 in Petah Tikva

Farkash-HaCohen was born in Petah Tikva in 1970 to Michael and Shoshana Farkash. Her father came to Israel from Romania and her mother from Poland. She grew up in Ashdod and attended the Amana school in Kfar Saba.

After national service at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, she studied law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She interned with Justice Dalia Dorner and later worked at a law firm and at the Antitrust Authority, where she headed a litigation team. In 2007 she completed a master's degree in public administration at Harvard University as a Wexner Foundation fellow.

In 2003 she became legal advisor to the Electricity Authority, and in 2012 she became its permanent chair, the first woman in the role. Private power producers and solar power entered the market during her term. The government removed her in 2015 over her position on the natural gas monopoly, and in 2017 she joined Goldfarb Seligman as head of its energy department.

She joined Israel Resilience and entered the Knesset on the Blue and White list. In May 2020 she became minister of strategic affairs and in October 2020 minister of tourism. In 2021 she was appointed minister of science and technology and renamed the ministry to include innovation.

In July 2025 she announced she was leaving Blue and White but kept her Knesset seat, and she later joined the Yashar party. She chairs the Knesset subcommittee on artificial intelligence and advanced technologies.