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Forum Dvorah Experts

Israela Oron

Security, negotiation, women in security, refugees

אורנה מזרחי

Brigadier General (Res.) Israela Oron served as Deputy National Security Advisor at Israel’s National Security Council (NSC) during the terms of Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon as prime ministers. 


In this capacity, Oron briefed the Israeli cabinet on strategic issues and headed inter-agency policy planning projects on several issues, including the Palestinian refugee issue. 


Before joining the NSC, in 2000, she was a director at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) Israel, establishing and leading the Organizational Strategy Department. 


Israela served in the IDF for 27 years in various key positions. 


In 1991 she was the first woman to be appointed to the post of Deputy Spokesmen of the IDF, and in 1992 she became the first woman to serve as a faculty member at the IDF National Defense College. 


As her last appointment, she served as the Head of the IDF’s Women’s Corps, where she promoted reforms regarding the role of women in the IDF and in Israeli society at large, namely eliminating the separate IDF Women’s Corps, which paved the way for women to assume roles in all military units and in virtually all positions in the IDF. 


General Oron is a members of Commanders for Israel’s security (CIS), and is a board member of several NGOs, among them: The Geneva Initiative, Aharai!, Peace and Security Association and is also the steering committee of Ben-Gurion University. 


Israela holds a master’s degree in business administration from Tel-Aviv University and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Haifa University.

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