On Israel's left, a young firebrand is building her base

Stav Shaffir slides into a high-backed black leather chair at the Knesset Transparency Committee, a parliamentary panel she created and helms, and convenes a session on public housing – or rather Israel’s chronic shortage of it.

Every seat in the wood-paneled room is taken, so attendees, many of them housing activists, crowd together in the back. But Hagai Reznik, the director of the Housing Ministry, is running late.

Ms. Shaffir, Israel’s youngest-ever woman lawmaker when she was elected in 2013 at the age of 27, looks out at the room, her trademark shock of red hair spilling over a black blazer, and announces that there is too much ground to cover to wait for the director. She begins questioning Mr. Reznik’s deputies and taking testimony from people who have waited years for public housing.

When Reznik finally does arrive, the

'A real authentic voice'An aversion to politicsLink to peace process