Cohen Paran sworn in as first-ever MK from an environmentalist party

She is replacing Danny Atar, who resigned from the Knesset after being elected chairman of Keren Kayemet LeIsrael.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Updated: NOVEMBER 26, 2015 06:07
Yael Cohen Paran (photo credit: Courtesy)
Yael Cohen Paran
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Yael Cohen Paran became the first-ever “green” MK Wednesday, when she was sworn in to the Knesset as the first lawmaker in Israel from an environmentalist party, the Green Movement, which ran with the Zionist Union list.
She replaced Danny Atar, who resigned from the Knesset after being elected chairman of Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael- Jewish National Fund.
“We are leaving our daughters and our sons an over-crowded world, which we pollute every day, while over-consuming our natural resources,” Cohen Paran said in her inaugural speech to the Knesset.
“The challenges we leave to future generations are difficult and complex. There is a close connection between environmental, economic and social issues, which together will ensure a sustainable future,” she continued.
Cohen Paran said climate change and other problems in the world are connected, positing that “loss of grazing land, water resources and erosion of farmland are fueling conflicts, poverty, unemployment and, ultimately, migration.
The refugee crisis we are seeing now may be only the beginning.”
Sustainability issues, the new MK lamented, are pushed aside because of matters of national security.
“More people die each year due to air pollution than are killed in hostilities and wars,” she said. “However, the security situation pushes sustainability to the bottom of the priority list. The residents of the devastatingly polluted Haifa Bay area can no longer wait for the wars to run out.”
Cohen Paran, 42, is a resident of Pardess Hanna and a mother of three. She increases the number of female MKs