Dov Khenin

Dov Khenin
Date of birth	10 January 1958 (1958-01-10) (age 53)
Place of birth	Petah Tikva, Israel
Knessets	17th, 18th
Party	Hadash

Dov Khenin (Hebrew: דב חנין‎, born 10 January 1958) is an Israeli political-scientist, lawyer, and member of the Knesset for the leftist Hadash party. He is a member of the central committee of Maki (the Israeli Communist Party and the largest faction within Hadash), an activist for socio-economic equality and an environmentalist. His father was David Khenin, one of the leaders of Maki.

Biography

Dov Khenin was born in 1958 in the city of Petah Tikva, the son of David Khenin, a leader of Maki. His first name, Dov Boris, is after his father’s brother, who was killed in World War II. In his youth, Khenin began to be involved in the Banki Youth Movement and other leftist youth circles that were active in Tel Aviv.

Khenin finished his military service with the rank of sergeant. As a soldier, he refused to serve in the West Bank and Gaza. In 1982 he completed his studies in law at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

From 1984 to 2004, Khenin worked as a lawyer in the office of Amnon Zichroni. This professional framework led Khenin take on some of the key cases dealing with human rights violations in Israel and in the Territories. In the mid-eighties, he represented Yitzhak Laor in a petition to the High Court against the banning of his play “Ephraim Returns to the Army,” which was censored by the Israeli Committee on Film and Theatre. Following the case, the Supreme Court annulled the ban and permitted the performance of the play. In 2003, Khenin took on the case, pro-bono, of five left-wing military refusers.

In the year 2000, he received a Ph.D. in political science from Tel Aviv University. His doctoral thesis was entitled, “Discourse and Hegemony in the Eretz Yisrael Workers’ Party and in the British Labor Party: Changing Patterns of Preservation and Conversion.” That same year he participated in the first cycle of the “Environmental Fellows Program” at the Heschel Center for Environmental learning and leadership, as a research fellow at the Porter School of Environmental Studies at Tel Aviv University. In 2002 he completed his post-doctoral work on the relationship between society and environmentalism at Oxford University.

Khenin is married with three children.

Political career

During his studies at the Hebrew University, Khenin headed the left-wing Jewish–Arab movement on campus. He was also active in the peace movement, pushing for a shared Jewish-Arab political partnership. Additionally, Khenin was heavily involved in the struggles for human rights and workers' rights.

For years, Khenin has been active in numerous environmental organizations. He also coordinated the Israeli research team that worked in cooperation with the Global WorldWatch.

In 2002, he was chosen to be Chairperson of the umbrella environmental organization, Life and Environment, an activity center for more than 100 environmental organizations. He was also active in a number of environmental struggles, such as the fight for the Ayalon Park, as well as in the struggles against the Safdie Plan, and against the building projects in Timna and on the Palmachim Beach. Khenin resigned from his position as chairman when he presented his candidacy for the Knesset, running on the Hadash list.

Khenin has published numerous articles on the subject of “environment and society.” He also edited the book series, “Signs of Life” which deals with these same issues. At the end of 2005, he delivered a series of lectures on the topic of, "The Globalization Crisis", to the Israeli program, Universita Meshuderet on Army Radio (Galatz). From the years 2004 to 2006, he served as the Academic Director of the Environmental Justice Clinic at Tel Aviv University.

Since 1990, Khenin has been a leading member of the Israeli Communist Party. During the elections for the 16th Knesset, he held the number four spot on the Hadash-Taal list. At the time, the party was only about 500 votes short in order for Khenin to be able to enter the Knesset. On January 14th, 2006, Khenin placed third on the Hadash list, and was subsequently elected to the 17th Knesset.

Khenin is currently a member of the Internal Affairs and Environment Committee, and he also heads the Knesset’s joint committee on Environment and Health. Additionally, he served as chairman, alongside Knesset member Rabbi Michael Melchior, of the social-environmental lobby, the largest lobby in the 17th Knesset.

In the 18th Knesset, Khenin headed the social-environmental lobby together with MK Nitzan Horowitz.

Khenin was the mayoral candidate for the Ir Lekhulanu ("City for All") party which was supported by the Jaffa Jewish-Arab list Yafa (whose partners are Balad and Hadash) and endorsed by the Green Movement^[1] in Tel Aviv's 2008 municipal election , but lost to the incumbent mayor Ron Huldai with 34.3% of the vote, compared to Huldai's 50.6%. Khenin vowed to continue battling Huldai's policies from the Knesset and Tel Aviv's opposition.^[2]

In 2010 he received the Knight of Quality Government Award on behalf of the Movement for Quality Government in Israel.

Legislation

1. The Polluter Pays Law – a law that updates and amends all the environmental laws in Israel. The law includes advanced mechanisms of economic punishment – administrative and criminal – against polluters. The law increases the punishment imposed on bodies that pollute without a pollution permit and also establishes a collection mechanism from bodies that pollute within the framework of the law. This mechanism is intended to encourage factories to advance to cleaner technologies.
2. The Environmental Enforcement Law – the law deals with the problem of lack of enforcement of environmental legislation by means of empowering the local authorities to enforce environmental laws. It aims to simultaneously serve a significant environmental cause (increasing the enforcement of environmental laws) and a significant social cause (flowing of fines money collected from environmental polluters straight into the treasuries of the local authorities whose residents are the main casualties of the pollution).
3. Clean Air Law – the law was presented to the Knesset before the election of MK Khenin and was approved on the first reading in the 16th Knesset in a lean and deficient version, as part of a political compromise which made it possible to pass it. In the 17th Knesset the law was reformulated in the course of dozens of sessions of the Internal Affairs and Environment Committee and in marathonic discussions held with the various bodies involved. The Chairman of the Committee, MK Ophir Pines-Paz, assigned MK Khenin the task of leading the Committee's work during some of the important stages of the work. This is a comprehensive law that fully regulates, for the first time in Israel, the issue of discharging pollutants to the air, while tightening the ring around the polluting industry. Within the framework of the law, the Government is committed to prepare and implement a multi-annual program for the reduction of air pollution in Israel, while setting clear goals, methods of action and timetables for the achievement of these goals. A national monitoring system will be set up for the purpose of measuring air pollution, and the data will be publicly published on a regular basis. An emission licensing mechanism will be created for each factory and industrial body and will involve the general public. Fines and severe prison sentences will be imposed on polluters transgressing the law. Factories that fail to comply with orders regarding the reduction of pollution will be shut down. Restrictive environmental standards will be set for those types of cars and fuels which will be allowed for use in Israel.
4. The extension of maternity leave to 14 weeks – Knenin was the first to initiate the law which extended maternity leave to 14 weeks.
5. Employees Notification Law – an amendment which guarantees that manpower contractor workers will receive information about the terms of the contract under which they are employed. This law is intended to amend a state where the employee is not informed of the terms that were agreed upon between the manpower contractor and the actual employer, and to ensure that the employee will receive the employment terms - to which the contractor is obliged towards the actual employer - at the beginning of his employment. The law demands that the employee shall receive the information he needs in order to ensure the exercising of his rights.
6. Act to Reduce Air Pollution from Transportation (Amendment to Transportation Order 84) - This law creates a clear division of power between the government and the local authorities, putting an end to the difficult situation in which either side could paralyze the other’s initiatives. The amendment obliges the local authorities to act for the reduction of air pollution caused by transportation in every case where there is a high level of air pollution.
7. The Prohibition of Entry Fees to Public Parks – an amendment to the Municipalities Ordinance, which forbids the local authorities to charge entrance fee in public parks.
8. A Law for the Extension of the Activity of the Fund for At-Risk Children and Youth – the Fund for Children and Youth at Risk was originally formed as a means to deal with the spread of poverty, distress and social problems among children and youth following the major reduction in children's allowances. Over the course of the years the fund has developed a variety of activities involving aiding at-risk children and youth, and its activities have received state-wide recognition. The fund was initially established by virtue of a temporary order which was due to expire at the end of 2007. The law extended the activity of the fund for an additional year.
9. Law to Prohibit the Sale of Lottery Tickets to Minors – This bill allows the sale of lottery tickets only to those who are over 18, so as to protect minors from developing a gambling addiction.
10. Law for the Protection of the Eilat Gulf Coast – This law extends the scope of the Costal Area Protection law to include the Eilat Gulf Coast, as it was originally limited to the Mediterranean Sea area.
11. A Law for the Protection of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) – a law which applies the provisions of the Law for the Preservation of the Coastal Environment on the coasts of the Sea of Galilee as well, and establishes an authority (Kinneret Urban Union) to act for the protection of the Kinneret and its coasts.
12. A law for the prevention of cyclic dismissals – the law prohibits the phenomenon of engaging employees under a contract for a limited period of time, in a cyclic manner, where, following the cancellation of the employer –employee relationship, which does not exceed six months, the employee is rehired. Thus, the law, in effect, makes it impossible for employers to avoid their obligation to ensure the social benefits of their employees, including severance pay.
13. Law for Saving Water in Public Buildings – A law that requires the installation of water saving devices in public facilities – the proposal compels the installation of water saving devices, including "has'hamim" (water-savers), in all the public facilities, in order to save water.
14. The Deposit Law – a comprehensive amendment to the Deposit Law. The law in its most recent version, which is a merger of the private member's bill of MK Knenin and of the government bill on this subject, includes significant accomplishments, the most important of which is assigning direct responsibility to manufacturers on the basis of the principle "the polluter pays".

References

1. ^ The endorsement is in: Dov Khenin and “City for All” for the Tel Aviv Municipal Elections
2. ^ Somfalvi, Attila (2008-11-12). "Khenin Loses to Huldai, Promises to Continue Battle from Knesset". Ynetnews. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3621667,00.html. Retrieved 2008-11-12. 

External links

• Dov Khenin Knesset website
• Dov Khenin Ir LeKhulanu
• Dov Khenin Green Prophet
• DovBlog

Persondata
Name	Khenin, Dov
Alternative names
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Date of birth	1958-01-10
Place of birth	Petah Tikva, Israel
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