Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid announced on Wednesday Karin Alhrar and Adi Kol as
the newest additions to the party’s Knesset candidates list.
Lapid spoke
at a press conference at Sokolow House in Tel Aviv leading into the January 22
election.
Alhrar heads the legal clinics at Bar- Ilan University, while
Kol is the founder and head of “University for the Nation.”
Alhrar’s
legal clinics are notable for their work on behalf of the disabled, Yesh Atid
said.
Kol’s organization is “an original and unique model, unique in the
world” that helps disadvantaged and less-educated persons take introductory
university courses throughout Israel, the party said.
At the press
conference, Lapid welcomed Alhrar and Kol to the party, saying, “If you’re
talking about people who can change the system, Karin and Adi are exactly the
model of how to do things differently.”
The Yesh Atid party leader
described them as two young female leaders who “looked at the country and said
to themselves: Instead of whining about the fact that things aren’t working,
instead of blaming others, we are going to rise up and do something about
it.”
He added that his party’s mission of changing the system could best
be realized by taking in leaders on the rise and utilizing the vision and
leadership of people like Alhrar and Kol.
Alhrar said at the press
conference that her joining Yesh Atid was the result of “familiarity with the
weaker sectors of Israeli society” and their daily struggles.
She added
that as director of the legal clinics and working with the downtrodden of
society, she deals with “thousands of cases a year,” helping them fight for
their “fundamental rights.”
Kol said that she did not want to “stand
around and watch my country, my home, become divided, polarized, cynical and
desperate.”
She added that she wanted to live in a country where young,
talented people would want to join in public service and not where public
servants were derided and in disgrace, as she characterized the current state of
affairs.
Both new Knesset candidates expressed their belief that Yesh
Atid could bring real and historic change to society.
Lapid started
rolling out some of his top names for the party’s list shortly after the recent
Knesset decision to go to an early election.
On Monday, Lapid announced
that Herzliya’s mayor, Yael German, and Dimona’s mayor, Meir Cohen had joined
the party and its Knesset candidates.