Bambi Sheleg, a trailblazing Israeli journalist, died Aug. 15 following a prolonged illness, the Israeli news site Srugim reported. She was 58.
A native of Chile, Sheleg left a mark on Israeli society with investigative reports in the magazine Eretz Acheret and elsewhere. Sheleg founded Eretz Acheret in 1999; it distinguished itself from other Israeli publications in the quality of its in-depth reporting on issues such as prison privatization and poverty. Her editorial line sought to challenge dogmas popular on the political left and right.
Sheleg was also a leader of the settler movement and a founder of the West Bank settlement of Atzmona. However, even though she was a Zionist and supporter of the settler movement, she was critical about it in op-eds she penned in the Israeli media, especially after the 1995 assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
She was married to Yair Sheleg, a journalist with the Israeli daily Makor Rishon, with whom she lived in Jerusalem. They had three children.
Born Biatris Erlich, she emigrated to Israel at 12 and lived with her Modern Orthodox Jewish family in Netanya, where she attended a religious high school. — jta