The Special Committee for the Rights of the Child on Wednesday unanimously elected MK Yousef Jabareen (Joint Arab List) as its chairman.
Committee Chairman MK Jabareen thanked all those who congratulated him on his appointment and said, “This is definitely a rare moment of unity in this house.”
“I am approaching this mission with the belief that I will be able to act for the benefit of children living below the poverty line, for teenagers who go to sleep on an empty stomach, for (young) girls and teenage girls who suffer from violence, for the Arab children who live below the poverty line and study in an education system that widens the social gaps, and for boys and girls who are abandoned and excluded by the system,” said MK Jabareen.
“I pledge to fight for the children of us all – Arabs and Jews alike,” he stated, adding that the committee will work to help children and teenagers who have been harmed due to the coronavirus crisis, as well as those who are “regularly harmed by an unequal system that only widens the gaps.”
“As someone who has worked for years on issues of human rights, law and education, the Committee for the Rights of the Child will be a continuation of this work and of the fight for equality and social rectification, and against exclusion and discrimination,” committee chairman Jabareen said.
Speaker of the Knesset MK Yariv Levin (Likud) was the first to congratulate MK Jabareen and said they both “have come a long way” since they were classmates at Hebrew University’s Law School. “He had a brilliant career in the law, and brings with him capabilities that are perfectly suited for the committee that deals with our future generation, their rights and the concern for those whose voice is not heard enough and do not have the right to choose.”
The committee, Speaker Levin said, deals with “touching, and at times very painful” topics, and its members are passionate about the issue of children’s rights. “It is a great privilege to head a committee that serves as a focal point for significant activity and the advancement of important initiatives for the benefit of our children,” Levin said. “I am certain that the committee is in the most professional hands one could hope for.”
MK Ahmad Tibi (Joint Arab List) said the appointment is a great achievement in that, for the first time, a member of the Joint Arab List Arab List faction will “head this important committee, which cares for all the country’s children, who at times suffer from violence and lack of rights, certainly Arab society’s children, 60% of whom are below the poverty line.”
“I am certain that Yousef will promote this important issue for the benefit of the entire public in the country,” MK Tibi said.