Knesset gears up for presidential vote | The Times of Israel Knesset gears up for presidential vote Election of country’s 10th president takes place Tuesday as difficult, scandal-riddled race comes to a close View of an empty meetings room at the President's residence in Jerusalem on June 02, 2014. (Photo credit: Miriam Alster/Flash90) Newsroom Israel’s presidential frontrunner doesn’t back Palestinian state, but says it’s not his call The Israeli Knesset is set to elect Israel’s 10th president on Tuesday from a field of five candidates, as a difficult and scandal-laden presidential race to succeed Shimon Peres comes to a close. The election is conducted by a secret ballot of the 120 Knesset members and the president serves a single, seven-year term. Peres’s tenure ends July 27. Officially, the presidency is a largely ceremonial office. But Peres, a former prime minister and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has risen above the post and turned it into a position with international gravitas. The presidential campaign to succeed him will be remembered for its ugly mudslinging.

Candidates have complained about private investigators digging into their personal histories, and two campaigns were derailed by scandals. “Shimon Peres was an important president due to his special status in capitals around the world and because of the dignity that he restored at home in the aftermath of the Katsav affair,” columnist Nahum Barnea wrote Sunday. “Peres’s gravitas added an artificial importance and drama to the question of his successor…we need to realize that the next president isn’t going to be Peres.” Presidential candidate and ex-Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin MK (Likud). (Photo credit: Flash 90) The remaining candidates for the post — after Labor’s Binyamin Ben-Eliezer dropped his bid for the position Saturday following allegations of financial impropriety — are former Supreme Court judge Dalia Dorner, MK Meir Sheetrit of the Hatnua party, MK Reuven Rivlin of Likud, Nobel Prize-winning chemist Dan Shechtman and former Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik. Last month, Energy Minister Silvan Shalom chose not to run for the presidency in the wake of allegations of sexual impropriety; the allegations were not substantiated.

Dan Shechtman (Photo: Flash 90) None of the candidates was expected to win an outright majority in the first round of voting, forcing a second round between the two top vote getters. On Sunday, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein called an emergency meeting to discuss whether to postpone the elections in light of the recent developments, and ultimately announced that the vote will proceed as planned. Edelstein faced some pressure to delay the vote from, among others, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “The harsh atmosphere that continues to surround the presidential race stirs up dissatisfaction with the process and casts a heavy shadow on the candidates and on the Knesset,” Edelstein said after announcing his decision. Former Supreme Court Justice Dalia Dorner (photo credit: Miriam Alster/Flash90) Ben-Eliezer, a former IDF general and defense minister, announced he was withdrawing from the presidential race Saturday afternoon, just three days before the elections and less than 24 hours after police questioned him for nearly five hours, under caution, on suspicion that he illegally received millions of shekels from various sources, using some of the money to purchase his luxury apartment home in Jaffa.

Police were also investigating a separate $350,000 payment from a relative, and alleged improprieties relating to other large sums of money. Ben-Eliezer wrote on his Facebook page Saturday that he was quitting the race with a “very heavy heart,” criticizing the “slanderous smear campaign” he says was waged against him from the moment he announced his candidacy for the post. He continued to maintain his innocence. MK Meir Sheetrit (photo credit: Miriam Alster/Flash90) Netanyahu was reported on Saturday to be looking into the possibility of postponing the elections in light of the latest developments. He started putting out feelers to members of his coalition Friday after the allegations against Ben-Eliezer first emerged. Edelstein suggested Saturday evening that there was a “guiding hand” in a number of emerging scandals surrounding presidential candidates.

Dalia Itzik addresses the Knesset on July 18, 2011.(photo credit: Miriam Alster/FLASH90) The Knesset speaker told Channel 10 it was unlikely that prominent politicians, who have served at the highest levels of government over the last 30 years, would coincidentally be facing a rash of allegations precisely as the presidential race gathered pace. “It would be naive to think that just in the last three weeks all these troubles befell them,” he said. Peres is set to end his term just a week shy of his 91st birthday. He enjoys huge popularity among Israelis, with a Channel 2 television poll finding that nearly two thirds of the public had wanted him to remain in his post. Peres’ departure from office is likely to switch the presidency’s focus from international affairs to more domestic matters, commentators say. So far, all the candidates have played the card of “national unity”, pledging to respect the essentially apolitical nature of the role, which was so elegantly avoided by Peres.

Peres’s open engagement with the question of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict often put him on a direct collision course with Netanyahu, and he also spoke out about Israel’s often tense relations with Washington and on the Iranian nuclear threat. For many, he will be remembered for restoring the reputation of the Israeli presidency, which was badly tarnished by former incumbent Moshe Katsav who was convicted on two counts of rape and other sexual offences. The only Palestinian woman in Israel's parliament | The Electronic Intifada Jonathan Cook The Electronic Intifada 25 February 2009 When Israel’s 18th parliament opened this week, there was only one Arab woman among its intake of legislators. Haneen Zoubi has made history: although she is not the first Arab woman to enter the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, she is the first to be elected for an Arab party. Sitting in her home in Nazareth, the effective capital of Israel’s 1.2 million Palestinian citizens, she is dismissive of her predecessors, two women elected on behalf of Zionist parties. “They were worse than decorations,” she said. “Decorations don’t do any harm, but these women damaged our society.

They were no role models at all.” Zoubi, 39, a representative of the Tajamu Party, known for its Palestinian nationalist platform, has already shown she will not be following in their path. On a recent induction day for Knesset members, she made headlines locally when she pointed out to an official who repeatedly referred to “the territories” that he meant “the Occupied Palestinian Territories.” Her election is not Zoubi’s only pioneering moment. She was the first Palestinian citizen to graduate from a media studies course in Israel, at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and she established the first media classes in Arab schools. For the past six years she has headed an organization exposing Israeli media bias. Her priority now, she said, is to advance both the cause of the fifth of the country’s population who are Palestinians, commonly referred to as “Israeli Arabs,” and the cause of Palestinian women in Israel. “I don’t want to become the Knesset address for Arab women’s issues. I need to raise the interest of the men in my party on women’s issues, not allow their interest to wane because they can dump the issue on me.” But she said she does represent a demand among the minority’s women for change and political involvement.

“Women congratulate me in the street. Even women I know who are usually supporters of the Islamic movement or who were planning to boycott the election because of [Israel’s recent attack on] Gaza came and told me they voted for me.” Alongside her will be nine male Arab party legislators: two from Tajamu, four from an Islamic party and three from the Communist party. A remaining one is Jewish. They will be facing the most hostile Knesset in history. Of the parliament’s 120 members, at least 65 are classified as belonging to the right and far-right and may yet form a governing coalition. Avigdor Lieberman’s party, Yisrael Beiteinu, which threatens to strip Israel’s Palestinians of citizenship unless they pledge loyalty to a Jewish state, has 15 seats. One of the National Union’s four legislators, Michael Ben-Ari, a former member of an outlawed anti-Arab terrorist group, is appointing two extremist settlers from Hebron as parliamentary aides. “In a proper state, Lieberman’s program would be declared illegal.

But the real concern is not his platform but that it has been legitimized by the main Zionist parties,” including Kadima, whose leader is Tzipi Livni, and the Likud Party of Benjamin Netanyahu, who is attempting to cobble together a ruling coalition. Tajamu is almost universally despised by Jewish legislators. Its founder, Azmi Bishara, is living in exile after he was accused of treason over the 2006 Lebanon war; its officials are hounded by the secret police, the Shin Bet; and, as in other recent elections, Zionist parties attempted to bar Tajamu from running. The courts overruled the move. Zoubi said she will not be fazed. “The Knesset is always hostile to Arab Knesset members and we are well used to their racist language. Even the building shows us we are not welcome. Everywhere there are Jewish symbols — from the Star of David on the flag to the menorahs — that we as Palestinians cannot identify with.” Like other Palestinian citizens, she has watched the TV news bulletins showing Jewish legislators, even cabinet ministers, shouting down Arab legislators in the Knesset chamber and having them ejected.

The racist discourse that lies behind Knesset debates is a concern, she said. “It is frustrating and exhausting having always to be on the defensive about why I identify as a Palestinian, why I am not a Zionist, why the Jewish state is not democratic and cannot represent me, why I am entitled to citizenship. It is a Sisyphean labor.” She admits to boycotting the first Knesset election after she turned 18. “There is a significant group in our society that calls for a boycott, saying we will always be excluded from the political system here. But we need a Palestinian voice in the Knesset. I and the other Palestinian MKs are an obstacle to the Zionist parties’ success in trying to control our society’s consciousness.” The party’s platform — developed by Bishara — is to reform Israel from a Jewish state into a “state of all its citizens,” a program now advocated by all the Arab parties. “The Jewish public don’t like self-confident, unapologetic Arabs, which is why Azmi was always feared.

But actually I think there is a base of support even among Jews for reforming Israel into a proper democracy, maybe as much as 30 percent.” She hopes that her election — by breaking one of Jewish society’s stereotypes about the Palestinian public — may start to win over more Israeli Jews to the party’s program. In the meantime, she said, Tajamu will work to oppose confiscation of Arab land and house demolitions, and demand proper infrastructure in the minority’s communities, as well as have their educational and economic rights recognized. But she is critical of the Palestinian minority’s dominant political demand for many decades: equality. “The struggle solely for equality treats me as a number, it reduces me to part of a mathematical formula. It ignores my history, identity and narrative as a Palestinian. I want to be a full Israeli citizen, but it must not come at the expense of my people’s collective rights to an identity and a past.” Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His latest books are Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East (Pluto Press) and Disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiments in Human Despair (Zed Books). His website is .

A version of this article originally appeared in The National , published in Abu Dhabi. Israeli Bonds Rise With Stocks as Netanyahu Wins Election - Bloomberg Bloomberg the Company & Its Products Bloomberg Anywhere Remote LoginBloomberg Anywhere Login Bloomberg Terminal Demo Request Bloomberg Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world. Customer Support Advertising Bloomberg Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world. Customer Support Israeli Bonds Rise With Stocks as Netanyahu Wins Election Sharon Wrobel and Shoshanna Solomon Israel’s benchmark government bonds rose to the highest in more than two weeks and stocks gained after preliminary election results showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in lead position to form a new coalition government. The yield on the 3.75 percent benchmark bonds due March 2024 dropped five basis points to 1.59 percent at the close of trading. The TA-25 Index of stocks increased 1 percent to 1,578.90, the highest on record.

The shekel slipped 0.4 percent to 4.0246 per dollar as of 5:47 p.m. in Tel Aviv. “We are seeing investors buying shekel-denominated government bonds as they like the results of the election in that there is no big change,” Gil Chen, head of the fixed-income desk at Israel Brokerage & Investments Ltd. in Tel Aviv, said by phone. Netanyahu said last week he would offer the finance ministry to 54-year-old Moshe Kahlon, leader of the new Kulanu party, which is poised to win 10 Knesset seats after campaigning for a reduction in the cost of living. Kahlon gained widespread popularity when, as communications minister in Netanyahu’s Likud party, he allowed new competitors into the cellular phone market, cutting the cost of mobile phone usage by 90 percent. “Expectations that Moshe Kahlon may become finance minister and introduce reforms that will put pressure on prices is also pushing yields down,” said Chen. Israeli yields are also tracking their U.S. counterparts before a Federal Reserve policy decision, Chen added. The yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury bonds dropped three basis points on Wednesday.

Preliminary Results Netanyahu’s Likud was on track to capture as many as 30 seats in the 120-member parliament, six more than Isaac Herzog’s Zionist Union, and 12 more than the party currently has, according to unofficial preliminary results from Tuesday’s race. The most important business stories of the day. Get Bloomberg's daily newsletter. The latest political news, analysis, charts, and dispatches from Washington. You will now receive the Politics newsletter Markets The most important market news of the day. So you can sleep an extra five minutes. You will now receive the Markets newsletter Technology Insights into what you'll be paying for, downloading and plugging in tomorrow and 10 years from now. You will now receive the Technology newsletter Pursuits What to eat, drink, wear and drive – in real life and your dreams. You will now receive the Pursuits newsletter Game Plan The school, work and life hacks you need to get ahead. You will now receive the Game Plan newsletter The results are not yet final and do not include votes from soldiers and diplomats. The central election committee is due to announce unofficial results by Thursday and present the final count to President Reuven Rivlin by March 25.

Netanyahu intends to form a coalition within two to three weeks, Army Radio reported, citing a Likud spokesman. In the past seven Israeli elections, it took an average of 38 days to form a government. Israel’s A+ credit rating was unaffected by the election outcome, on the assumption that “any new coalition government would maintain stable public finances,” Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said. Traders are the most bullish on the shekel in more than three weeks, according to three-month 25-delta risk reversal data compiled by Bloomberg, which shows the cost of options used to hedge against changes in the value of the currency. The rate was at 113 basis points, the least since Feb. 10 on a closing basis. The Israeli currency has dropped 14 percent in the past year as policy makers sought to prevent an appreciating shekel from hurting exports, which make up more than a third of the country’s gross domestic product. “The shekel is poised to continue a weakening trend in the short-term,” Yossi Fraiman, chief executive officer at Bnei Brak, Israel-based investment house Prico Group, said by phone on Wednesday. “The election is not a big surprise in terms of leadership.

The only difference is that Netanyahu is getting more power and we may see more competition in the economy.” Regulator’s Decision The new government will need to address economic reforms that could affect the currency, including a regulator’s decision last year to reconsider foreign stakes in Israel’s two largest natural gas reserves, according to BlueStar Global Investors LLC. The election campaign had delayed “a decision about the prospect of seeing inflows from Israeli gas, which is one of the forces that’s been behind the shekel’s appreciation,” Bruce Schoenfeld, research director at New York-based BlueStar, which builds indexes to invest in Israeli companies, said by phone. The Bank of Israel unexpectedly trimmed the policy rate last month to a record low of 0.1 percent, seeking to revive economic growth and halt a decline in consumer prices. The central bank has reduced rates 13 times since 2011 and bought foreign currency to weaken the shekel and make exports more competitive. Economic growth slowed to 2.8 percent last year from 3.2 percent, in part due to the conflict in the Gaza Strip in July and August. Growth will rally to 3.2 percent in 2015, the Bank of Israel forecast in December.

“Now that elections are out of the way, what we hope is that the economic issues can be addressed without being muddied by political considerations,” William Scholes, an investment manager at Aberdeen Asset Management Plc, which oversees $50 billion in emerging-market equities, said by phone from London March 18. “Visibility and consistency of policy are vital to companies’ ability to budget and adapt going forward.” Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal. Israel unprepared for its aging population בעברית ישראל פולס An elderly couple walk on a path leading to Jerusalem's Old City, Feb. 4, 2012. (photo by REUTERS/Amir Cohen) Israel unprepared for its aging population Author: Mazal Mualem Posted September 24, 2014 Minister of Senior Citizen Affairs Uri Orbach is convinced that even if the ministry that he heads is considered the least appealing now, within just two decades, it will become one of the government's most coveted ministries. In fact, he says it will undergo the same process that the Ministry of Environmental Protection experienced.

Summary ⎙ Print In an interview with Al-Monitor, Minister of Senior Citizen Affairs Uri Orbach says that Israel is unprepared for the global phenomenon of prolonged lifespans, with too many poor elderly, and must act rapidly to assure pension resources before it's too late. Author Mazal Mualem Posted September 24, 2014 TranslatorDanny Wool “The scope of handling the issue of senior citizens in modern society is dramatic,” he said in an interview with Al-Monitor. “The elderly population will grow significantly in the future, and that has economic implications. There will be a disaster here, if we don’t take care of the problem now. People won’t be able to live off their pensions.” A former journalist and author, Orbach, 54, of the HaBayit HaYehudi Party, can take some satisfaction from a current poll by television’s Knesset Channel. Some 70% of all respondents knew that he heads the Ministry of Senior Citizen Affairs. To a large degree, this impressive result can be attributed to various projects he initiated to boost the elderly population as both citizens and consumers.

The crown jewel of this campaign is a successful initiative with the cute name, “ Suspenders Tuesdays ,” in which senior citizens receive all sorts of benefits and discounts at cafes, restaurants and theaters. Al-Monitor: “Suspender Tuesdays” is a cute idea, but many seniors in Israel are among the country’s poorest population . Orbach: It is true that there are seniors who take advantage of “Suspenders Tuesdays” benefits, but that there are also elderly citizens who are poor . On New Year's eve this week, there will be about 200,000 poor elderly people whom we would need to help. The latest figures on poverty in Israeli show that while the poverty level is dropping among all other sectors of the population, when it comes to the elderly , the situation is different. The scope of poverty among the elderly actually skyrocketed this year. I claim that if they would add 1 billion shekels [about $273 million] for the elderly to this year’s budget, I would be able to raise most of the country’s senior citizens from below the poverty line. Sometimes another 100 shekels [$27] a month makes all the difference.

It may sound like a pittance, but that is money they could use to buy more food. Unfortunately, these elderly always end up at the end of the line, and those who are in the most dire straits won’t take to the streets to demonstrate. I contend that if children were in the same state as the elderly, they would be put up for adoption. The situations I encounter as part of my job are absolutely shocking. I see indigent lonely elderly people wandering about helplessly. There is always a struggle over resources in society, and the elderly are not a strong enough group to fight for their rights. That is why, in this context, I face a real dilemma as minister. When fighting over the budget, should I present the media with those senior citizens who are living in the worst possible circumstances? Should I highlight Holocaust survivors , who have been robbed? Al-Monitor: Why is that a dilemma? Orbach: Because most of Israel’s elderly are neither beaten nor poor, and if I portray them in that way, as people living in truly miserable circumstances , I am turning them into an isolated sector of the population. I don’t want to do that.

What I want to do is to help the hundreds of thousands of senior citizens who go to “Suspenders Tuesdays” have a better life. I want to build an infrastructure that will help them spend their leisure time and pay less for what they purchase. Minister for Senior Citizens' Affairs Uri Orbach (L), sits with Chairman of HaBayit HaYehudi party Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett (R) and leading religious Zionist Rabbi Haim Druckman, at a party election campaign meeting in 2012. (photo courtesy of Office of Minister Orbach) I want to present the image of the energetic senior, while the media and politicians alike want to portray the elderly as people living in misery, because that serves certain interests. I believe that when I show that the elderly are stronger than that, and when I highlight their purchasing power, it helps them. It’s a matter of awareness. After all, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is 64 years old and he is considered young.

David Ben-Gurion was prime minister when he was 62, and he was already called “the Old Man.” We see more elderly people in commercial advertisements today, because people are starting to realize that this is an important sector of the population, which has been growing at a dizzying pace. This is, of course, an international phenomenon across modern society. If the average person would live to be 70 just 40 years ago, the average lifespan for men today is 80, while for women, it is 82–83. Al-Monitor: The big problem is pension savings. According to all the forecasts, there will not be enough money there to provide for the elderly much longer. How is Israel preparing for that? Orbach: The problem is that none of the various systems were adapted to people living another 10 years after retirement. People now retire at the age of 67, but they live to be 80. That means they haven’t worked enough for whatever years they have left. This has enormous economic implications for the state. Long life is a blessing, but it is also an economic burden on the state, and we have to prepare for that.

Western nations are examining solutions like raising the age of retirement, but there are some professions, such as teaching, in which people get worn out. That’s a problem. Besides, people shouldn’t have to work until they die. I believe that in the end, there will be no way to avoid raising the age of retirement. But before we raise it, we should examine the economic implications that it will have and do it gradually. One of our main roles at the ministry is to make recommendations to the government about removing those workplace regulations that keep the elderly population from being a part of the workforce. Al-Monitor: How many senior citizens are there in Israel, and what are the projections for that population? Orbach: The elderly population now stands at approximately 830,000, which is about 10% of the total population. It is predicted that the number will double in 15 years, and that they will constitute 15% of the population. It is in the state’s interest that elderly people continue working, and that is very significant. Our challenge is to offer employment opportunities for the elderly. One of the ideas is to create an employment office for senior citizens. This is the population sector which grows the fastest.

Salaries go down once people reach the age of retirement, but they have more healthcare expenses at that age. That means that even adding just 250 shekels [about $68] a month to their salaries would be significant. Beyond that, work is something to keep people busy and give them a reason to get out of the house. It is a well-known fact that loneliness is the main ailment of our times, and that is true for the elderly population sevenfold. In many cases, people who leave a place of employment after working there for 40 years often have no set schedule of what to do every day. I believe that it is the role of the state to provide an alternative to this loneliness, as well as to the many other changes that the elderly face, like the passing of their spouses and closest friends. There is a lot that the state can do about that. It can steer this population to volunteer projects and to meetings with friends. Al-Monitor: What is it that bothers you most of all as the minister responsible for the elderly population? Orbach: That the state isn’t doing enough, and that more money should be invested in preparing for an aging population, particularly in all matters relating to their pensions.

What it boils down to is that this is a struggle over resources, pitting security against social issues. I understand the importance of the Iron Dome air-defense system and of fighter jets to ward off threats, but we cannot neglect all the other issues. Otherwise, the result of ignoring them will be that one day, 15 years down the road, old age pensions will suddenly be cut in half, because the country will have no other option. Read More: Knesset urged to raise minimum age for leaving child alone - Israel - Jerusalem Post Knesset urged to raise minimum age for leaving child alone Israel Knesset urged to raise minimum age for leaving child alone Knesset urged to raise minimum age for leaving child alone Share on Facebook Share on Twitter will be forbidden to leave children under nine years old alone and unsupervised – instead of the current six years – if the National Council for Children Safety and Health (Beterem) persuades the Knesset to raise the age limit. The issue will be discussed by the Labor, Social Affairs and Health Committee on Tuesday, and Beterem director- general Orly Silbinger will voice the voluntary organization’s position.

In the US and Canada, for example, a child may not be left alone and unsupervised below age 10 to 13, depending on the state. Be the first to know - Join our Facebook page. Every year, 50,000 children aged five to nine years are treated in hospital emergency rooms following injury, mostly in home accidents, though it is not known how many of them were left alone without adult supervision. Injuries occurred from falling from heights, fires, burns, poisoning, gas leaks, cuts, wandering alone in the streets and being left in a vehicle, among others. At present, the punishment for negligence that endangered or significantly hurt, or was liable to significantly hurt, a child is three years in prison; If the adult intended to abandon his or her child, the punishment is five years’ imprisonment. These were just a few recent cases: • A father in the center of the country left his six-year-old daughter alone at home without a key. She cried, alerting the neighbors who called the police. They broke into the home and found that she had climbed onto the countertop, broken the gas range and caused a gas leak.

• A neighbor in the north of the country heard a threeyear- old boy crying. The police broke into the apartment and found the toddler alone after his mother had gone to Haifa to study. • An 18-month-old boy was found wandering alone in the street in the North. His mother arrived soon after, saying she had not noticed that he had left the apartment. • A resident in the center of the country called the municipal security department after he saw a girl climbing on the railings of her home balcony and was about to fall. The Fire and Rescue Service arrived in time and removed three children who had been left alone behind a locked door. • A father in the South forgot to take his year-old daughter to her day care center and then went off to work. The mother found her unconscious three hours later, and the baby was taken in serious condition to the hospital. Comparing a 2008 survey conducted among a representative sample of Israeli Jewish parents to a similar survey in 2001, Beterem found there had been a significantly fewer people were aware that it is forbidden to leave young children alone and unsupervised.

The same was true about the age when children can be allowed to cross the street by themselves (age nine). A large majority knew that it was dangerous to leave a child in a public pool unsupervised. But more than a third said that was “the lifeguard’s job.” According to the 2008 survey of 700 Jewish parents, 53 percent said one parent remains at home with young children during the school vacation; the rate was higher among parents with a very low income (76%) and among the religious (64%). Twenty-nine percent said grandparents or other relatives take care of young children during the vacation, while others said they went to a summer camp or educational framework or had a teenage or adult babysitter. A 2009 Beterem survey of the Arab sector found that 45% do or would leave children under 12 alone at home, and 28% do not or would not do so. Child safety experts note that youngsters don’t understand that they can be injured or the finality of death. They are also less aware of dangerous situations and are unable to properly judge the actual distance of a car from where they are. Youngsters may also be impulsive.

Silbinger urges parents of children older than nine to be prepared by parents for remaining alone by putting dangerous objects away; teaching them how to use heaters, electricity and gas; showing how to leave the home and building; insisting that the door never be opened for strangers; leaving prepared food that does not need to be warmed up; and supplying emergency and relatives’ or neighbors’ phone numbers. Relevant to your professional network? Please share on Linkedin Think others should know about this? Please share | Arab Parties Face The Most Hostile Knesset In History 24 February, 2009 Countercurrents.org Nazareth: When Israel’s 18th parliament opened today, there was only one Arab woman among its intake of legislators. Haneen Zoubi has made history: although she is not the first Arab woman to enter the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, she is the first to be elected for an Arab party. Sitting in her home in Nazareth, the effective capital of Israel’s 1.2 million Palestinian citizens, she is dismissive of her predecessors, two women elected on behalf of Zionist parties. “They were worse than decorations,” she said.

“Decorations don’t do any harm, but these women damaged our society. They were no role models at all.” Ms Zoubi, 39, a representative of the Tajamu Party, known for its Palestinian nationalist platform, has already shown she will not be following in their path. On a recent induction day for Knesset members, she made headlines locally when she pointed out to an official who repeatedly referred to “the territories” that he meant “the occupied Palestinian territories”. Her election is not Ms Zoubi’s only pioneering moment. She was the first Palestinian citizen to graduate from a media studies course in Israel, at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and she established the first media classes in Arab schools. For the past six years she has headed an organisation exposing Israeli media bias. Her priority now, she said, is to advance both the cause of the fifth of the country’s population who are Palestinians, commonly referred to as “Israeli Arabs”, and the cause of Palestinian women in Israel. “I don’t want to become the Knesset address for Arab women’s issues.

I need to raise the interest of the men in my party on women’s issues, not allow their interest to wane because they can dump the issue on me.” But she said she does represent a demand among the minority’s women for change and political involvement. “Women congratulate me in the street. Even women I know who are usually supporters of the Islamic movement or who were planning to boycott the election because of [Israel’s recent attack on] Gaza came and told me they voted for me.” Alongside her will be nine male Arab party legislators: two from Tajamu, four from an Islamic party and three from the Communist party. A remaining one is Jewish. They will be facing the most hostile Knesset in history. Of the parliament’s 120 members, at least 65 are classified as belonging to the right and far-right and may yet form a governing coalition. Avigdor Lieberman’s party, Yisrael Beiteinu, which threatens to strip Israel’s Palestinians of citizenship unless they pledge loyalty to a Jewish state, has 15 seats.

One of the National Union’s four legislators, Michael Ben-Ari, a former member of an outlawed anti-Arab terrorist group, is appointing two extremist settlers from Hebron as parliamentary aides. “In a proper state, Lieberman’s programme would be declared illegal. But the real concern is not his platform but that it has been legitimised by the main Zionist parties,” including Kadima, whose leader is Tzipi Livni, and the Likud Party of Benjamin Netanyahu, who is attempting to cobble together a ruling coalition. Tajamu is almost universally despised by Jewish legislators. Its founder, Azmi Bishara, is living in exile after he was accused of treason over the 2006 Lebanon war; its officials are hounded by the secret police, the Shin Bet; and, as in other recent elections, Zionist parties attempted to bar Tajamu from running. The courts overruled the move. Ms Zoubi said she will not be fazed. “The Knesset is always hostile to Arab Knesset members and we are well used to their racist language. Even the building shows us we are not welcome.

Everywhere there are Jewish symbols – from the Star of David on the flag to the menorahs – that we as Palestinians cannot identify with.” Like other Palestinian citizens, she has watched the TV news bulletins showing Jewish legislators, even cabinet ministers, shouting down Arab legislators in the Knesset chamber and having them ejected. The racist discourse that lies behind Knesset debates is a concern, she said. “It is frustrating and exhausting having always to be on the defensive about why I identify as a Palestinian, why I am not a Zionist, why the Jewish state is not democratic and cannot represent me, why I am entitled to citizenship. It is a Sisyphean labour.” She admits to boycotting the first Knesset election after she turned 18. “There is a significant group in our society that calls for a boycott, saying we will always be excluded from the political system here. But we need a Palestinian voice in the Knesset.

I and the other Palestinian MKs are an obstacle to the Zionist parties’ success in trying to control our society’s consciousness.” The party’s platform – developed by Mr Bishara – is to reform Israel from a Jewish state into a “state of all its citizens”, a programme now advocated by all the Arab parties. “The Jewish public don’t like self-confident, unapologetic Arabs, which is why Azmi was always feared. But actually I think there is a base of support even among Jews for reforming Israel into a proper democracy, maybe as much as 30 per cent.” She hopes that her election – by breaking one of Jewish society’s stereotypes about the Palestinian public – may start to win over more Israeli Jews to the party’s programme. In the meantime, she said, Tajamu will work to oppose confiscation of Arab land and house demolitions, and demand proper infrastructure in the minority’s communities, as well as have their educational and economic rights recognised. But she is critical of the Palestinian minority’s dominant political demand for many decades: equality. “The struggle solely for equality treats me as a number, it reduces me to part of a mathematical formula. It ignores my history, identity and narrative as a Palestinian.

I want to be a full Israeli citizen, but it must not come at the expense of my people’s collective rights to an identity and a past.” Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His latest books are “Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East” (Pluto Press) and “Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair” (Zed Books). His website is . A version of this article originally appeared in The National ( published in Abu Dhabi. Leave A Comment Leket Israel stars in World Food Day session at Knesset - Israel News - Jerusalem Post Leket Israel stars in World Food Day session at Knesset 05 November 2014 05:34 Proposed legislation would enable food bank to collect three times as many meals for needy. VOLUNTEERS GATHER in a field to harvest food for Leket Israel to distribute to the needy.

(photo credit:LEKET ISRAEL) Rescuing food is the equivalent of saving a life, MK Miri Regev told the Knesset Internal Affairs and Environment Committee on Tuesday, speaking at a hearing marking World Food Day. The hearing was part of a day-long event at the Knesset, which Leket Israel – The National Food Bank initiated in collaboration with MKs Shuli Moalem-Refaeli (Bayit Yehudi), Hilik Bar (Labor) and Orly Levy-Abecassis (Yisrael Beytenu) in an effort to raise awareness about food insecurity and food rescue in the country. Health minister: Whole-wheat food must be cheaper Leket Israel addressed five Knesset committees, presenting the country’s current food rescue initiatives, and hosted a conference at the parliament on the necessity for legislation to increase the number of food donors, prevent waste and, most importantly, reduce hunger throughout the country. “We are delighted to have the opportunity to mark World Food Day at the Knesset to raise awareness about the importance of food rescue to benefit Israel’s needy,” said Leket Israel founder and chairman Joseph Gitler ahead of the day.

“In addition, the proposed legislation for the first-ever Good Samaritan Food Donation Act in Israel will allow Leket Israel, for example, to collect at least three times more hot meals annually, meaning 4.5 million meals every year. These fresh meals will not only be saved from destruction, but will be redirected to Leket Israel’s partner agencies feeding Israel’s poor.” The legislation is based on the US’s 1996 Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, which protects goodfaith food donors from civil and criminal liability. There is no such law in Israel at present, but the proposed legislation aims to protect all those who donate their surplus food to Leket Israel in good faith from any liability. It will also protect the food bank’s partner agencies as they distribute the food that they receive for the needy. According to the organization, 40 percent of all food in the country – estimated at some NIS 1.3 billion – is destroyed before it ever reaches people’s plates. Despite this bleak figure, more than 1,000 food suppliers donate surplus food to Leket Israel before it goes to waste.

The organization then distributes this food to 180 nonprofit organizations, reaching 140,000 needy people on a weekly basis. Leket Israel estimated it would rescue some 1.5 million hot meals in 2014. Bar cited a recent UN report as establishing that “over a third of children in Israel are hungry.” “Leket Israel is the leading organization in this important field in Israel,” he said. “It costs a shekel per person to glean the food, and the child or the person receives a meal worth about NIS 12.” He stressed that “all the food that is not donated gets buried in the ground. We hope to pass a law to save the food, that will grant legal protection to NGOs and regulate the saving and collecting of food.” Levy-Abecassis said the latest figures showed that “the snowball is growing even bigger. Leket Israel distributes 8,000 sandwiches when there are 900,000 children living below the poverty line. This is a drop in the ocean, and this is something we want to amend through the legislation.” Relevant to your professional network?

Please share on Linkedin Tags: By YONAH JEREMY BOB Promoted Content Israel moves to outlaw Palestinian political parties in the Knesset | The Electronic Intifada Israel moves to outlaw Palestinian political parties in the Knesset Oren Ziv ActiveStills The Israeli parliament voted overwhelmingly last week to suspend Haneen Zoabi , a legislator representing the state’s large Palestinian minority , for six months as a campaign to silence political dissent intensified. The Israeli parliament, or Knesset , voted by 68 to 16 to endorse a decision in late July by its ethics committee to bar Zoabi from the chamber for what it termed “incitement.” It is the longest suspension in the Knesset’s history and the maximum punishment allowed under Israeli law. At a press conference, Zoabi denounced her treatment as “political persecution.” “By distancing me from the Knesset, basically they’re saying they don’t want Arabs, and only want ‘good Arabs.’ We won’t be ‘good Arabs,’” she said . The Knesset’s confirmation of Zoabi’s suspension comes as she faces a criminal trial for incitement in a separate case and as the Knesset considers stripping her of citizenship.

But Zoabi is not the only Palestinian representative in the firing line. Earlier this year the Knesset raised the threshold for election to the parliament, in what has been widely interpreted as an attempt to exclude all three small parties representing the Palestinian minority. One in five citizens of Israel belong to the minority. In addition, it emerged last week that a bill is being prepared to outlaw the northern branch of the Islamic Movement, the only extra-parliamentary party widely supported by Palestinian citizens. Along with Zoabi, the Islamic Movement’s leader, Sheikh Raed Salah , has been among the most vocal critics of Israeli policies, especially over the al-Aqsa mosque compound in occupied Jerusalem. Death threats Zoabi was originally suspended after legislators from all the main parties expressed outrage at a series of comments from her criticizing both the build-up to Israel’s summer assault on Gaza , dubbed “Operation Protective Edge,” and the 51-day attack itself, which left more than 2,100 Palestinians dead, most of them civilians.

In particular, fellow members of Knesset were incensed by a radio interview in which she expressed her disapproval of the kidnapping of three Israeli youths in the occupied West Bank, but refused to denounce those behind it as “terrorists.” The youths were later found murdered . Zoabi faced a wave of death threats and needed to be assigned a bodyguard for public appearances. During the Knesset debate on her appeal against the suspension, Zoabi said : “Yes, I crossed the lines of consensus — a warlike, aggressive, racist, populist, chauvinist, arrogant consensus. I must cross those lines. I am no Zionist, and that is within my legal right.” Under attack Zoabi, who has come to personify an unofficial political opposition in the Knesset against all the main parties, is under attack on several fronts. Last week she was informed that the state prosecution service had approved a police recommendation to put her on trial for criminal incitement for “humiliating” two policemen. She is alleged to have referred to the policemen, who are members of the Palestinian minority, as “collaborators” as she addressed parents of children swept up in mass arrests following protests against the Israeli assault on Gaza over the summer.

Faina Kirschenbaum, the deputy interior minister in the government of Benjamin Netanyahu , has also drafted two bills directly targeting Zoabi. The first would strip someone of the right to stand for the Knesset if they are found to have supported “an act of terrorism,” while the second would strip them of their citizenship. Because ministers are not allowed to initiate private bills, the task of bringing the measures to the floor of the parliament has been taken up by the Knesset’s Law, Constitution and Justice Committee. Intentional subversions Zoabi further infuriated fellow members of Knesset this month when she compared the Israeli army to the Islamic State, the jihadist group that has violently taken over large parts of Syria and Iraq and has become notorious for kidnapping westerners and beheading them.

In an apparently intentional subversion of Netanyahu’s recent comparison of the Islamic State and Hamas, the Palestinian resistance movement, Zoabi described an Israeli Air Force pilot as “no less a terrorist than a person who takes a knife and commits a beheading.” She added that “both are armies of murderers, they have no boundaries and no red lines.” Avigdor Lieberman , the foreign minister, was among those who responded by calling Zoabi a “terrorist.” “The law must be used to put the terrorist — there is no other word for it — the terrorist Haneen Zoabi in jail for many years,” he told Israel Radio. A poll this month found that 85 percent of the Israeli Jewish public wanted Zoabi removed from the Knesset. “There is a great deal of frustration among Israeli politicians and the public at their army’s failure to defeat the Palestinian resistance in Gaza,” said Awad Abdel Fattah, the secretary general of Balad , a political party representing Palestinians in Israel. “At times like this, the atmosphere of repression intensifies domestically.” Silencing all political dissent The initiatives against Zoabi are the most visible aspects of a wider campaign to silence all political dissent from the Palestinian minority.

Last week, Lieberman instructed one of his members of Knesset, Alex Miller, to initiate a bill that would outlaw Salah’s Islamic Movement. The legislation appears to be designed to hold Netanyahu to his word from late May. Then, the Israeli media revealed that the prime minister had created a ministerial team to consider ways to ban the movement. At the same time, the Israeli security services claimed that Salah’s faction was cooperating closely with Hamas in Jerusalem. After Israel barred the Palestinian Authority from having any presence in Jerusalem more than a decade ago and expelled Hamas legislators from the city, Salah has become the face of Palestinian political activism in Jerusalem. Under the campaign slogan “al-Aqsa is in danger,” he has taken a leading role in warning that Israel is incrementally taking control of the most sensitive holy site in the conflict. Omar Sameer ActiveStills Last month it emerged that the Knesset is to vote on legislation to give Jewish religious extremists greater access to the mosque compound. Already large numbers of Jews, many of them settlers, regularly venture on to esplanade backed by armed Israeli police.

They include Jewish extremists that expressly want to blow up the al-Aqsa mosque so that a replica of a Jewish temple from 2,000 years ago can be built in its place. Last week, Yehuda Glick , a leader of one of these extremist groups, was shot and wounded in Jerusalem. In response, Israel shut down al-Aqsa for the first time since the outbreak of the second intifada fourteen years ago. Mahmoud Abbas , the head of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, called it a “declaration of war.” According to the text of Lieberman’s bill , the northern wing of the Islamic Movement “subverts the State of Israel’s sovereignty while making cynical use of the institutions and fundamental values of the Jewish and democratic state.” It also blames the movement for “an eruption of violence and unrest among the Arab minority in Israel, while maintaining close relations with the terrorist organization Hamas.” Raising the threshold The attacks on Zoabi and the Islamic Movement come in the wake of legislation in March to raise the electoral threshold — from 2 percent to 3.25 percent — for a party to win representation in the Knesset.

The new threshold is widely seen as having been set to exclude the three Palestinian parties currently in the Knesset from representation. The minority’s vote is split almost evenly between three political streams. Zoabi’s Balad party emphasizes the need for the Palestinian minority to build its own national institutions, especially in education and culture, to withstand the efforts of Israel’s Zionist institutions to strip Palestinian citizens of their rights and erase their identity. Its chief demand has been for “a state for all its citizens” — equal rights for Jewish and Palestinian citizens. Balad’s chief rival is the joint Jewish-Arab party of Hadash , whose Communist ideology puts a premium on a shared program of action between Jewish and Arab citizens. However, its Jewish supporters have shrunk to a tiny proportion of the party. It too campaigns for equal rights. And the final party, Raam-Taal, is a coalition led by prominent Islamic politicians. The three parties have between them eleven seats in the 120-member Knesset, with one held by a Jewish member of Knesset, Dov Chenin, for Hadash.

Abdel Fattah said his Balad party had been urging the other parties to create a coalition in time for the next general election to overcome the new threshold. So far it has faced opposition from Hadash, which is worried that an alliance with Balad would damage its image as a joint Jewish-Arab party. A source in Hadash told Israeli daily Haaretz in late September: “Hadash is not an Arab party, and there’s no reason it should unite with two Arab parties.” Abdel Fattah said Hadash’s objections were unreasonable given that both Balad and the Islamic faction believed it was important to include Jewish candidates on a unified list. “Eventually they will have to come round to a joint list unless they want to commit political suicide,” he remarked. Falling turnout Balad has been under threat at previous general elections. The Central Elections Committee, a body representing the major political parties, has repeatedly voted to ban it from running. Each time the decision has been overturned on appeal to the Supreme Court. In 2007 the party’s former chairman, Azmi Bishara , was accused of treason while traveling abroad and has been living in exile ever since.

But the representation of all the parties is now in danger from the raised threshold. Over the past thirty years, turnout among Palestinian citizens has dramatically fallen to little more than half of potential voters, as the minority has seen its political demands for equality greeted with a wave of laws entrenching discrimination. Among the anti-democratic measures passed in recent years are laws that penalize organizations commemorating the Nakba , the Palestinians’ dispossession of their homeland in 1948; that provide a statutory basis to admissions committees , whose function is to prevent Palestinian citizens living on most of Israel’s territory; and that make it impossible for most Palestinian citizens to bring a Palestinian spouse to live with them in Israel. Uncompromising stance Last week, Balad MKs boycotted the opening ceremony of the Knesset, following the summer recess, in protest at Zoabi’s treatment. At a press conference in the parliament, her colleague, Basel Ghattas, warned: “The day is approaching when Arab MKs will think there is no use participating in the political sphere.

We are discovering more and more that we are personae non gratae at the Knesset.” On Facebook, Lieberman responded that he hoped the Arab MKs would “carry out this ‘threat’ as soon as possible.” The increasingly uncompromising stance towards all the Palestinian minority’s political factions marks a shift in policy, even for the right. Although no Israeli government coalition has ever included a Palestinian party, and the Nasserist al-Ard movement was banned in the 1960s, Jewish politicians have generally viewed it as safer to keep the Palestinian parties inside the Knesset. Analyst Uzi Baram observed in Haaretz that even Menachem Begin, a former hardline prime minister from Netanyahu’s Likud party, believed it would be unwise to raise the threshold to keep out Arab parties. If they were excluded, Baram wrote, it was feared “they would resort to non-parliamentary actions.” “Paving the way toward fascism” Zoabi petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court against her suspension from the Knesset in early October. However, the judges suggested she first use an arcane appeal procedure before the Knesset’s full plenum to demonstrate she had exhausted all available channels for lifting the suspension.

Israeli legal scholars have noted the irregularities in the ethics committee’s decision to impose a record-long suspension on Zoabi. The committee’s task is to regulate parliament members’ behavior inside the Knesset, not political speech outside it. Aeyal Gross, a constitutional law professor at Tel Aviv University, warned that the Knesset’s treatment of Zoabi was “paving the way towards fascism and tyranny.” Gross noted the extreme severity of the committee’s punishment of Zoabi, contrasting it with that of another MK, Aryeh Eldad. In 2008 he called for Ehud Olmert , the prime minister at the time, to be sentenced to death for suggesting that parts of the occupied territories become a Palestinian state. Eldad was suspended for just one day, even though it was a clear example of incitement to violence in a country where a former prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, was murdered by a right-wing extremist, citing similar justification for his actions. Tyranny of the majority The Supreme Court, which has shifted rightwards in recent years, may not be sympathetic to Zoabi’s appeal against her suspension.

In September the court jailed Said Nafaa, a former MK from her Balad party, for one year after he was convicted of visiting Syria in 2007 with a delegation of Druze clerics and meeting a Palestinian faction leader in Syria. The crime of making contact with a foreign agent is the only one in Israeli law in which the defendant must prove their innocence. The court may also be wary of making unpopular rulings at a time when it is under concerted attack from the Israeli right for being too liberal. Ayelet Shaked , of the settler Jewish Home party, which is in the government coalition, has introduced a bill that would allow a simple majority of the Knesset to vote to override Supreme Court rulings. Human rights lawyers warned that the bill would further erode already limited protections for minority rights. Debbie Gild-Hayo, a lawyer with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel , warned that protections for minorities from the tyranny of the majority would be in severe jeopardy as a result. “These proposals wish to break down the checks and balances that are fundamental to democracy,” she said. Zoabi remained defiant.

She noted that , while she was being hounded, the legal authorities had ignored genocidal remarks made by Jewish politicians against Palestinians during the summer attack on Gaza. “They’re putting me on trial over a trivial, meaningless matter, while ministers and MKs who incited to racism and incited to violence and even to murder aren’t being investigated, even after complaints were filed against them.” She added: “If I am indicted, I’ll turn the hearings into the most political trial in Israel’s history.” Jonathan Cook won the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His latest books are Israel and the Clash of Civilizations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East (Pluto Press) and Disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiments in Human Despair (Zed Books). His website is jonathan-cook.net . ‘I want to be a full Israeli citizen’ ‘I want to be a full Israeli citizen’ 24 February 2009 The National – 24 February 2009 When Israel’s 18th parliament opens today, there will be only one Arab woman among its intake of legislators.

Haneen Zoubi has made history: although she is not the first Arab woman to enter the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, she is the first to be elected for an Arab party. Sitting in her home in Nazareth, the effective capital of Israel’s 1.2 million Palestinian citizens, she is dismissive of her predecessors, two women elected on behalf of Zionist parties. “They were worse than decorations,” she said. “Decorations don’t do any harm, but these women damaged our society. They were no role models at all.” Ms Zoubi, 39, a representative of the Tajamu Party, known for its Palestinian nationalist platform, has already shown she will not be following in their path. On a recent induction day for Knesset members, she made headlines locally when she pointed out to an official who repeatedly referred to “the territories” that he meant “the occupied Palestinian territories”. Her election is not Ms Zoubi’s only pioneering moment. She was the first Palestinian citizen to graduate from a media studies course in Israel, at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and she established the first media classes in Arab schools. For the past six years she has headed an organisation exposing Israeli media bias.

Her priority now, she said, is to advance both the cause of the fifth of the country’s population who are Palestinians, commonly referred to as “Israeli Arabs”, and the cause of Palestinian women in Israel. “I don’t want to become the Knesset address for Arab women’s issues. I need to raise the interest of the men in my party on women’s issues, not allow their interest to wane because they can dump the issue on me.” But she said she does represent a demand among the minority’s women for change and political involvement. “Women congratulate me in the street. Even women I know who are usually supporters of the Islamic movement or who were planning to boycott the election because of [Israel’s recent attack on] Gaza came and told me they voted for me.” Alongside her will be nine male Arab party legislators: two from Tajamu, four from an Islamic party and three from the Communist party. A remaining one is Jewish. They will be facing the most hostile Knesset in history. Of the parliament’s 120 members, at least 65 are classified as belonging to the right and far-right and may yet form a governing coalition.

Avigdor Lieberman’s party, Yisrael Beiteinu, which threatens to strip Israel’s Palestinians of citizenship unless they pledge loyalty to a Jewish state, has 15 seats. One of the National Union’s four legislators, Michael Ben-Ari, a former member of an outlawed anti-Arab terrorist group, is appointing two extremist settlers from Hebron as parliamentary aides. “In a proper state, Lieberman’s programme would be declared illegal. But the real concern is not his platform but that it has been legitimised by the main Zionist parties,” including Kadima, whose leader is Tzipi Livni, and the Likud Party of Benjamin Netanyahu, who is attempting to cobble together a ruling coalition. Tajamu is almost universally despised by Jewish legislators. Its founder, Azmi Bishara, is living in exile after he was accused of treason over the 2006 Lebanon war; its officials are hounded by the secret police, the Shin Bet; and, as in other recent elections, Zionist parties attempted to bar Tajamu from running. The courts overruled the move. Ms Zoubi said she will not be fazed.

“The Knesset is always hostile to Arab Knesset members and we are well used to their racist language. Even the building shows us we are not welcome. Everywhere there are Jewish symbols – from the Star of David on the flag to the menorahs – that we as Palestinians cannot identify with.” Like other Palestinian citizens, she has watched the TV news bulletins showing Jewish legislators, even cabinet ministers, shouting down Arab legislators in the Knesset chamber and having them ejected. The racist discourse that lies behind Knesset debates is a concern, she said. “It is frustrating and exhausting having always to be on the defensive about why I identify as a Palestinian, why I am not a Zionist, why the Jewish state is not democratic and cannot represent me, why I am entitled to citizenship. It is a Sisyphean labour.” The party’s platform – developed by Mr Bishara – is to reform Israel from a Jewish state into a “state of all its citizens”, a programme now advocated by all the Arab parties. “The Jewish public don’t like self-confident, unapologetic Arabs, which is why Azmi was always feared.

But actually I think there is a base of support even among Jews for reforming Israel into a proper democracy, maybe as much as 30 per cent.” She hopes that her election – by breaking one of Jewish society’s stereotypes about the Palestinian public – may start to win over more Israeli Jews to the party’s programme. In the meantime, she said, Tajamu will work to oppose confiscation of Arab land and house demolitions, and demand proper infrastructure in the minority’s communities, as well as have their educational and economic rights recognised. But she is critical of the Palestinian minority’s dominant political demand for many decades: equality. “The struggle solely for equality treats me as a number, it reduces me to part of a mathematical formula. It ignores my history, identity and narrative as a Palestinian. I want to be a full Israeli citizen, but it must not come at the expense of my people’s collective rights to an identity and a past.”

Question: If I need to raise shekels to win election to the Knesset, which country am I in?
Answer: Israel