Opposition MKs have signed on to an initiative to promote social bills inspired
by this summer’s mass protests when the Knesset’s winter session begins
Monday.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Shatil - Leading
Social Change, Yedid - The Association for Community Empowerment and other NGOs
are encouraging “complementary legislation” to the steps recommended by the
Trajtenberg Committee, in a campaign called “Moving from the Tents to the
Knesset.”
“We call on MKs and members of the government to complete the
social change and join our initiative to promote a new social budget as well as
social bills on housing, education, health and employment,” Shatil spokeswoman
Ilanit Elul explained.
“We want to move the action from the streets to
the Knesset in order to give the demands for social justice a legal
standing.”
The initiative involves proposing numerous bills on a specific
topic that will be presented to the Ministerial Committee on Legislation in the
same week “in order to create a critical mass that will bring real
change.”
Every few weeks, the social organizations will focus on a
different topic and encourage MKs to address housing, health and other subjects
in parliamentary questions, motions for the agenda and conferences in the
Knesset.
They also plan to monitor MKs’ votes on social
matters.
As of Wednesday, only opposition MKs signed on to the
initiative, although Elul said the organizations contacted all of the Knesset’s
factions.
Next week, seven bills on housing will be presented to the
ministerial committee.
One, drafted by Kadima MK Ya’acov Edri, suggests
that a building with more than 50 housing units must make 20 percent of the
apartments under 100 square meters so will be affordable to young
couples.
Another, by MK Meir Sheetrit (Kadima), proposes cancelling
value-added tax on the first home a young couple purchases.
“When the
protests broke out, coalition and opposition members expressed their support for
the demonstrators’ demands,” Elul explained.
“As the new Knesset session
begins, they have a chance to prove to the public that they paid attention to
the public’s needs, and that they plan to act in order to bring a significant
improvement to citizens’ quality of life.”