First-time Knesset members Avi Gabbay (Labor), Orna Barbivay (Blue and White), Moshe Arbel (Shas), Keren Barak (Likud) and Eitan Ginzburg (Blue and White) delivered their inaugural speeches in the Knesset plenum on Monday and presented the issues they plan to advance in parliament.
 
Labor Chairman MK Gabbay mentioned in his speech that he first worked at the Knesset as a waiter, and “served food to people I had only read about until then – Arik Sharon, Avraham Shapira. They would dine for hours. I met Shimon Peres as well.” Later, MK Gabbay related, as part of his job in the Finance Ministry’s Budget Division, he would take part in meetings at the Knesset which centered mostly on reforms in the market.
 
“The whole opening up of the communications market was done here, in the Knesset,” MK Gabbay said, adding that he would also take part in meetings at the Knesset as Deputy CEO and CEO of Bezeq, and later as Minister of Environmental Protection.
 
“I believe in the Knesset and its importance, and its great influence on the citizens of the state,” he told the plenum. A great deal can be done also from the Opposition. I plan to participate mainly in the economic committees, for the benefit of the public.”
 
“These days, when immunity is the only issue on the prime minister’s agenda, we must be a clear opposition, to resist and to fight with all our might against the real blow to our democracy,” MK Gabbay stated.
 
“This is indeed a dark hour in this House. These laws have an aspect that is just as dangerous – the damage to the market, the economy and the engines of growth of this market. After immunity for Netanyahu there will also come immunity for his tycoons – immunity from tax payments, immunity from competition, and perhaps immunity for the contractor whose four workers were killed yesterday (in an accident at a construction site in Yavne). A culture of immunity is a culture of corruption and lawlessness, and it will hurt our children’s ability to tell right from wrong; [to distinguish between] what is legal and illegal.”
 
MK Arbel said, “In the State of Israel, with a territory the same as that of a neighborhood in California, having a periphery is unreasonable and wrong. After 71 years, we must do all we can and continue to strive towards narrowing gaps in society, believe and internalize – regardless of coalition and opposition – that health services, educational services and welfare services must be provided equally to everyone.”
 
“The residents of the development towns and the residents of the weaker local authorities have the right to and are worthy of - in the name of equality – any tool that will get them out of the circle of poverty,” said MK Arbel, who also stressed that the government’s investment in the geographic and social periphery must lead to real change, cultivate leadership and empower the residents.
 
MK Barbivay said in her speech that when her seven-year-old granddaughter asked her why she wants to be in the Knesset, “I replied, mainly to myself, that I do not have the privilege of standing idly by. As someone who grew up in the periphery, the eldest child in a family of nine from Afula, which for many years was dependent on the welfare policy which gave us a roof over our heads in public housing and blankets in the winter, I can very much appreciate the significance of the state’s concern and the effect this had on me with regards to understanding the needs of the individual and being sensitive towards those who lack the most basic necessities for their existence.”
 
“For the sake of the future I envision for my granddaughters and my son, we need a leadership that wants to translate our clear advantage in terms of defense into improving our deterrence and promoting diplomatic arrangements with a long-term strategic approach,” she said. “Unfortunately, the person who heads the country is interested in other issues. His attempt to avoid prosecution is surprisingly supported also by the decent people around him. For some reason, they are willing to put political considerations before the public good.”
 
The bill to lift the limit on the number of ministers and deputy ministers the prime minister is allowed to appoint, argued MK Barbivay, “is proof that you are putting your improper personal considerations before your duty as representatives of the public.”
 
MK Barak mentioned that she grew up in Haifa and was raised on the values of independence and women’s empowerment. “My beloved grandmother Tanya, of blessed memory, displayed great courage, resourcefulness and clairvoyance while escaping the claws of the Nazis,” she said. “She carried her sister on her back for many kilometers, in the freezing snow, thus saving her from certain death. The rest of our family was murdered in the Holocaust.”
 
“The remarks of Poland’s prime minister touched a very painful spot in my family’s history. I want to use this dais to ask you, Mr. Morawiecki, how dare you justify the appropriation of property of Jews who perished and of those who were saved and escaped? I am not lamenting the material loss, but the injustice you and your party are doing to the memory of the Holocaust.”
 
MK Barak called on Prime Minister Morawiecki to “be courageous and stand up” to the neo-Nazis in Europe and Poland specifically, “who are trying to rewrite history.”
 
MK Ginzburg, a former mayor of Ra’anana, mentioned that he entered the Knesset after 15 years of public service in the local government. He said that during the last mayoral election campaign in Ra’anana, “quite a few people” did not want him as mayor only because “I have a [male] partner. Because we have a family together. Because we are raising two children together. Because we have love. In Israel 2018, people came out of their homes to deny me the opportunity to lead, because of my lifestyle. Because I am part of the gay community.”
 
“So let me say, with great pride, now I am in the Knesset with the largest-ever number of representatives from the gay community. There is more than one way to love,” MK Ginzburg stated.
 
“Everyone deserves the freedom to love and start a family. This Knesset must progress. We must amend the Surrogacy Law. There is a disturbing gap between the public and the Knesset, and it is our duty to bridge and fill this gap. We must do everything we can in order to reduce the extent of the hatred.”