Danny Danon

Danon’s time as an emissary for the Jewish Agency had a big impact on his life; it was the first stepping stone in his choice to enter public service.

Upon his return to Israel, Danon served as an adviser to the Chair of the Knesset Foreign affairs and Defense Committee, MK Uzi Landau.

When he was 28 years old, Danon was elected Chair of the World Betar Movement. His responsibilities included managing the administrative, financial, and educational aspects of the organization in Israel and abroad, and encouraging aliyah.

From 2004 to 2009, Danon served as the chairman of the Likud faction in the World Zionist Organization. His responsibilities included encouraging aliyah to Israel and combating Antisemitism. Danon also served on the board of directors of the Jewish Agency, establishing policy, goals and monitoring the work of the Agency.

During the internal primary elections for the Likud Party slate in 2006, Danon was elected to the twenty-third place. In the general elections for the 17th Knesset the Likud only won twelve seats, and Danon did not enter the Knesset. Later that year, Danon ran against MK Yuval Steinitz for the position of Chairman of the World Likud.[12] In this new role, Danon assumed responsibility for the Likud’s Israel-advocacy activities, the movement’s international relations, and focused on building relationships with pro-Israel communities around the world.

In the 2007 Likud leadership race, Danon ran against Benjamin Netanyahu and Moshe Feiglin. Benjamin Netanyahu won the election.

On December 8, 2008, Danon was elected to the twenty-fourth place on the Likud slate for the upcoming election. In the general elections the Likud party won twenty-seven seats, and Danon was sworn in as a Member of the Knesset.

During this term, MK Danon served as Deputy Speaker of the Knesset,[13] Chair of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, and Chair of the Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs. These positions presented Danon with the opportunities promote legislation in a variety fields.

In addition to the committees that he chaired, Danon was also a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the Finance Committee, the Education, Culture, and Sports Committee, the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee and the Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality.

Legislation that Danon promoted included laws granting widows (including those who remarried) of fallen Israeli security personnel and terror attack victims the rights to receive grants from the government.[14] He also promoted a law in which ensured that pardoned convicts who committed a crime during their parole period would automatically be re-imprisoned.[15] In addition, Danon passed a law that limited the promotion and advertisement of alcoholic beverages,[16] and a law that set minimum weight requirements for the modeling industry and required advertisers to disclose whether Photoshop was used in their ads.[17]

In the Likud internal primaries for the 19th Knesset, Danon won the fifth place, and on March 17, 2013, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Defense.

During his term, Danon focused on increasing enlistment to the IDF from the Christian, and the Ultra-orthodox and Ethiopian Jewish communities, bettering the service conditions of reservists, establishing criteria for financial benefits for the security forces, and decreasing the number of military drop-outs.

In June 2013, Danon was elected Chair of the Likud Party Central Committee, with 85% of the votes.

On July 15, 2014, Danon was dismissed from his position by Prime Minister Netanyahu after publicly criticizing his conduct and his willingness to accept a truce with Hamas during Operation Protective Edge.[18]

Later that year, in December 2014, Danon placed 9th in the Likud’s internal primary elections. After the Likud victory in the general elections for the 20th Knesset, Prime Minister Netanyahu appointed Danon to his cabinet to the position of Minister of Science, Technology and Space.[19]

One of the first decisions Danon made after his appointment as Minister of Science, Technology and Space, was to designate the upcoming year as the year of Pioneering Women in Science and Technology. Danon also led efforts to increase awareness for science, technology and space among the residents of developing cities in Israel, by increasing the number of science-focused summer camps. Danon led negotiations with the Ministry of Finance and succeeded in increasing his Ministry’s budget by 20%.

During his time in office, Danon dealt with strengthening ties and cooperation between countries and companies around the world. In June 2015, he signed a cooperation agreement with Lockheed Martin on promoting science, technology and space among children. He also visited the Sesame Particle Accelerator in Jordan, which Israel is participating in, to broaden the cooperation between the two states.

Danon served in this position until August 27, 2015, when Prime Minister Netanyahu appointed him as Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN.[20]

During his tenure in the Knesset, Danon initiated the enactment of the following laws:

• "Weight Limitation Law" (with MK Rachel Adato): To protect models working in the modeling industry, the law states that underweight models (those with a BMI under 18.5) are not allowed to appear in advertisements within Israel. In addition, if graphic editing software is used to control the size of the model, the advertiser will be required to add a caption that takes up at least 7% of the advertisement space to reference this graphical adjustment.[21]
• "Limitations of Marketing Alcoholic Beverages": This law prohibits any advertisement of alcoholic beverage on materials such as billboards and printed items that are intended to be viewed by minors (below the age of 18). In addition, alcoholic beverages should not be offered as prizes in television or radio programs for minors and minors are forbidden to be involved in any form of advertising for intoxicants.[22]
• Amendment to the "Youth Working Law" (with MK Aryeh Eldad), which prohibits the employment of children in blatant advertising.[23]
• Amendment to the "National Health Insurance Law" (with MK Zeev Beilski), which expanded the level of government funding for medical treatment eligibility to children on the autistic spectrum.[24]
• Amendment to the "Weapon’s Law", which lowers the age needed to enter and use a shooting range.[25]

Danny Danon became Israel’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN in October 2015.[26] At that time a wave of terrorist attack struck Israel, and the situation in Israel made its way to UN discussions.[27] Danon’s first speech took place at the Security Council’s meeting on the Situation in the Middle East. The Palestinian representative to the UN, Riyad Mansour, interrupted Danon’s speech, violating protocol. In a Security Council meeting on the same issue in April 2015, Danon accused the Palestinian representative for failing to condemn terror.[28]

Ambassador Danon has visited Israel with the Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon,[29] where they visited Israelis wounded in the recent wave of terror attacks, and met with the wife of late Richard Lakin, who was brutally stabbed in a terror attack in the capital's Armon Hanatziv neighborhood. Danon visited Israel again with US Ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, where they toured Israel by helicopter and were briefed on the security challenges Israel faces.[30]

During Danon’s term as Permanent Representative, the Israeli Mission marked several notable achievements including: Recognition of Yom Kippur as an Official UN holiday,[31] Acceptance to the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS),[32] ZAKA and Access Israel, both Israeli NGOs, received consultative status at the UN,[33][34] an Israeli UN resolution on Agricultural Technologies for Sustainable Development was adopted by the UN General Assembly,[35] US Secretary of State John Kerry attended an event marking 40 years since Chaim Herzog’s historic UN speech,[36] Israel held the first ever international summit at the UN against BDS,[37] and Ambassador Danon became the first ever Israeli representative to chair a main UN committee.[38] The Israeli Mission also held an event in remembrance of the Jews that were persecuted in Arab countries.

His time as envoy to the UN is also characterized by a strong push against the UN’s historically poor treatment of Israel. After 8 months elapsed in which the UN refused to condemn the wave of terror in Israel, including a statement by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that it is “Human Nature to react to occupation,[39]” On June 9, both the Secretary General[40] and the Security Council[41] condemned terror in Israel for the first time following the Attack in the Sarona Market in Tel Aviv. In addition, Danon marked another victory when the Israeli Mission partnered with "Stand With Us" to display an exhibit about Israel, which was partially censored for its panels about Jerusalem and Zionism, was later displayed fully following pressure and diplomatic efforts by Ambassador Danon.

In 2016, Danon led a delegation of 14 ambassadors from the UN to Israel. Days later, the Security Council adopted resolution 2334, which noted that Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including in Jerusalem, are a violation of international law and an obstacle to peace. Despite Israel anticipating the Obama administration to use its veto, the resolution passed.

On May 31, 2017, Danon was elected as Vice President of the General Assembly as the representative of the Western states.

MK Danon called for restricting the age of viewing programs with "unworthy" content such as "Big Brother." He also submitted a bill that proposed the establishment of a government authority which would filter online sites that contain pedophilia content and endanger state security, ultimately dealing with information security and privacy on the Web. In December 2011, he proposed that on receiving an identity card, passport, or driver's license, one must be required to sign a declaration of loyalty to the State of Israel.

Danon served as chairman of the lobby in the Knesset to solve the problem of asylum seekers from Africa to Israel. On May 23, 2012, he participated in a demonstration in south Tel Aviv against ‘infiltrators’ from Africa, He declared during the rally "The State of Israel is at war! An enemy state of infiltrators has been established within the State of Israel, and its capital - South Tel Aviv. We have to put an end to this, expel all the infiltrators before it is too late.”

In November 2017, an article by Amit Segal published in the Central Edition on Channel Two alleged that Danon had employed about 100 Likud activists in the Zionist organization and in return they would support him. The Israel Police subsequently opened an investigation and in September 2018 announced that the case had been closed because of a lack of evidence.