"I put my children in daycare and all I have left is to pray"

Energy Minister Karin Elharar tells "Executive Summary" about the moment she sat in a wheelchair, her decision to study law, private legislation and renewable energy.

In the sentence in the title, she refers to one of her biggest disappointments: the law on the supervision of day care centers

Liat Ron

23/12/2021

Thursday, 23 December 2021, 18:01 Updated: 18:16

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Name: Advocate MK Karin Elharar, 44, Minister of Energy.

Who I am: profound, stubborn, perfectionist. I have high expectations of my environment, but I will not expect from others what I do not demand of myself.

Roots: Morocco. A grandmother on my mother's side was born in Marrakech and a grandfather in Casablanca, they met, started a family and in the early 60's traveled to Marseille and unlike most Jews, continued to Paris instead of Israel. Grandpa was an accountant at Procter & Gamble and Grandma would dress at the Dior fashion house. Mother, an accountant by training, immigrated to Israel alone at the age of 20.

A grandfather from the other side came from Pez and was a great Zionist and a grandmother from Casablanca.

They also left Morocco for Marseilles, and from there reached a transit camp in Lod.

Grandmother, who lived a comfortable life in Morocco, did not know what to do with herself, with only sand around her.

They faced difficult conditions, moved to a transit camp in Holon and from there to housing in the city.

Grandpa had a large shoe factory in Lewinsky and when he had severe diabetes, he thought one of the children would continue the business after him.

This did not happen, but the savings he accumulated over the years supported the family.

The parents met at the beach of Bat Yam.

They fell in love, got married and moved to Holon, where Dad had a hairdresser.

Because he was a lot in reserve, Mom filled his place and over the years moved on to work with him.

To this day they run a barbershop together.

God

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"Parents meet at Bat Yam beach" (Photo: Reuven Castro)

My childhood: Holon, eldest sister to two younger brothers. I dreamed of being a hairdresser, singer and model, I danced ballet, I was in artistic gymnastics and I was in a youth movement. At the age of nine my mother noticed that my physical reactions were different from those of my siblings and after a series of neurological tests determined that I had muscular dystrophy. The process was long and the moment of making the diagnosis was not experienced as dramatic. I had a limitation, but I continued as usual, walked, walked alone. What was indeed dramatic was the day I sat in a wheelchair.

Sentences: Because of my medical condition I did not enlist in the army and decided to fulfill a dream I had from eighth grade to become a lawyer, following the series I saw on TV, and to be honest, I was not a good elementary school student. I started studying law at Bar Ilan's faculty in Rishon Lezion and was the youngest in the class, along with someone else who was in the reserve. It was an empowering experience. In my first year, the founding verdict of Mizrahi Bank was given, the lights and the innocence of civil law and we learned it in real time.

Prof. Susie Navot was my model in the first degree and Prof. Neta Ziv in the second degree.

I joined the Heart in Law initiative, which provided legal advice to the incapacitated

and gave me the opportunity as a student to serve as a full-fledged lawyer and there I also saw Israel's backyard, which pushed me to social work.

Of the New Foundation for Human and Civil Rights Studies for a year in Washington, D.C., and I flew in. It was wow.

"Because of my medical condition, I did not enlist in the army and decided to fulfill a dream I had from eighth grade to become a lawyer" (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Rights of people with disabilities: As part of the program, we undertook to give a year of work in one of the social organizations in the country, with the fund counting the salary, and I joined the clinic for people with disabilities and moved to manage the clinics in the Faculty of Law. And Yair Lapid.

Yaron Hartstein: My husband. We met at JDate when I was 33 and I asked him in the first conversation if he saw that I was in a wheelchair and he answered, so what? He was involved in e-commerce at the time and today he concentrates on raising our two children Dreams. We live in Rishon LeZion.

Politics: As a lawyer you need someone to turn to you, tell a story, go to court with you, and on a good day you will get a verdict that will solve a problem. But what about those who failed to reach me? Working in a clinic at the university I realized that the next step in my activity would be setting social policy and politics is engaging in public and social policy.

There is a misconception that only when you are in the coalition is the ability to pass legislation significant.

It is true that in the opposition it is more difficult, but there is an extraordinary importance to raising issues on the agenda.

Everyone who is involved in politics wants to come at the end of the day and say, here, this is what I have achieved for you.

It is precisely in the coalition that we sometimes get into a routine and the opposition challenges action.

The most major law I passed was when I was sitting in opposition, the Foster Care Act for Children, which for the first time establishes the rights of children in foster care and safeguarding the best interests of the child.

When there are undisputed issues that need to be promoted, it is also possible to move them with broad support.

The current state of opposition absences will not be able to remain that way.

In the end, the public sent them to work for him.

You can play games for a short time, then go back to Genesis and remember why they came here.

"The most major law I passed was when I was in opposition" (Photo: Reuven Castro)

The State Audit Committee: I was appointed to a half-term position in 2015. The work was varied: from social issues, through security issues to pollution in Haifa Bay, which was the kind of discussion in which I received horrible answers at first, then stuttering or not good. Since I did not have a lever of legislation, I resorted to the tactic of attrition - I will not let you down until you give good answers.

Disappointment: The daycare supervision law we passed had excellent potential and what happened is an abnormal event in my eyes. I put my kids in daycare and all I have left is to pray. Every child who has been abused, or God forbid deprived of his life because of neglect, is a sign of Cain to our society. We dealt with the need for oversight on the one hand and on the other with the regulatory burden that can come with it. The absurdity is that the law is in force, but its application does not work. There is not enough supervision, no standards for supervisors. The easy part is to legislate. It's much harder to implement and it's frustrating.

EPA: A government company under the Ministry of Finance. In my first meeting with the CEO, he said that there was an agreement to transport oil from the United Arab Emirates through Israel and I asked him to check it. I am adamant that this agreement, as I know it, does not add anything to Israel's energy security but offers an option for environmental damage and therefore I oppose its existence. Certainly and certainly if the goal is to turn Israel into a pipeline for transporting fuel for money, which will result in a large financial outlay to repair the damage. The agreement was signed between companies and not between countries, during the previous government period. Most government ministries, including the Ministry of Environmental Protection, were unaware of its existence and it is not a proper manager.

Climate Conference: I found myself at a big event without intending to. I was supposed to join the Prime Minister for the meeting, but in the end I arrived alone. Bennett was in the hall and they did not let us enter the parking lot. They sent us to another entrance and it was closed there too. , Walk in, in a place that is not wheelchair accessible, or get on an inaccessible shuttle, and four degrees outside. In short - I was back at the hotel.

I was supposed to give an interview to an Israeli reporter who was waiting for me at the conference. She called and asked where I was. And a half there were pushes and blitz of requests for interviews, even to an Indian station. The next day I went in with the Prime Minister and his convoy. The whole delegation went out of its way.

I was in a trance, I was interviewed all over the world and in the end I took it to the struggle for accessibility, because whether I like it or not, it's me, this event on my shoulders and I'm proud to be allowed to raise awareness of the issue. And eventually the fact that I became a saleswoman and the interest created around me opened more doors without me intending. I stayed in Glasgow after the heads of state left to hold professional discussions, because in the end I came to discuss energy and not for photo-op.

Renewable energy: I did not need the climate conference to understand that the world must be green. I met colleagues from around the world there and everyone understands that there is a much more creative event event here than all of us. When one understands the meaning one must change diskette and that is why I have put renewable energy at the top of the firm’s priority list. You have to be careful, because you can not rely on just one type of energy. We have sun at certain hours and storage in batteries is lithium which is also non-environmental.

There will not be many wind turbines, maximum 2% - 3% of the total renewable energy, the majority will be solar. The manager has allocated us 20,000 acres for solar energy which is nothing. We wanted to set an example and place panels on the roof of the office, but the director of government housing does not agree, because the building is not owned by him. In the Foreign Ministry this is possible and in our case it is forbidden. It is not appropriate that at the end the public looks at us. We wanted to give electric cars to senior employees, but there are no charging stations. The answer is private initiatives, to encourage them and reduce regulation. Prime Minister is involved and I hope that government ministries will cooperate.

Electric vehicle: By the end of the year there should be 2,500 charging stations and we will launch a campaign that will tell where they will be placed. I want a lot of electric vehicles because the carbon emissions of the vehicles are huge.

Jordan: I signed two agreements with Jordan.

Increasing the amount of water sold to them at prices paid by the Israeli consumer, following the Prime Minister's commitment in a meeting with the Jordanian king and an agreement to buy green electricity produced from solar panels in exchange for our desalinated water.

Idan Ofer: I insist on extending the phosphate mining To any other company, they will all act in accordance with the language of the law.

I said in advance that I would not extend the franchise until the money was in the coffers.

They paid everything we demanded and paid more than a million shekels that were in dispute.

Gas exploration: When I said that in the coming year we will not embark on an extensive process of gas drilling, there were those who cried out, but we must understand that in practice the gas drilling will continue this year, Crocodile Shark rig will be connected and produce gas. At their request, for the coming decades.

"Gas drilling will continue this year according to plan" (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Nuclear power plant

: I gather information on the subject and consider it seriously.

New power plants will be built and the electricity grid will be expanded, because in order to switch to renewable energies we need another grid the size we have today.

This is a big event and I need the mobilization of the whole government to carry it out.

: Before going to bed, I watch the Knesset channel, for the life of me.

Yesterday I fell asleep in the middle of a heated plenary debate.

: I'm having a lot of fun right now.

Why think about what next?

"I have a lot of fun now. Why think about what next?" (Photo: Reuven Castro)

"Executive summary" with Karin Elharar is also published in the "Business" supplement of Maariv, Friday 24.12

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• Ministry of Energy

• Karin Elharar

• Yair Lapid

• Shai Firon

• climate