Shelanu

Shelanu: Direct Representation for Israel is a non-partisan, movement that seeks to influence a culture of empowered citizenship in Israel. It promotes the applied principles of individual rights and individual responsibility through direct representation and protections against abuses of power in government. The movement proposes certain changes to Israel's system of government.

• All Knesset legislators will be directly elected by absolute majorities in single-representative regional constituencies. That is, the movement endorses changing the election of Knesset Members (MKs)from proportional to direct representation. The head of the executive branch will also be directly elected in a national election.
• There should be absolute separation of powers and personnel among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government. No government official shall serve in more than one branch at any one time. MKs will not serve concurrently as government ministers and the head of the executive branch (whether she/he is called Prime Minister or President) will not concurrently serve in the Knesset. That is, the movement endorses changing from a parliamentary system to a presidential system for the executive branch.
• All government officials (including supreme court justices) should be accountable for their actions and impeachable under specific circumstances and through cross-branch procedure.

The name, "Shelanu" is Hebrew (שלנו) for "Ours." It is a short version of the organization's Hebrew name, "Shelanu, Me'Itanu, Avureinu," (שלנו, מאיתנו, עבורנו), meaning, "Of Us, By Us, For Us." This name is inspired by the famous quote from Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." The name's Hebrew initials are Shin (ש), Mem (מ), Ayin (ע), which spell out "shema" (שמע), the Hebrew word for "hear" or "listen."

Shelanu: Direct Representation for Israel was founded as "Direct Representational Democracy for Israel" on July 4, 2004. This initiative has also been called "Direct Representation for Israel."

References

• Jaffe, M. (2005, July 7). Solving our leadership crisis. The Jerusalem Post, p. 15.

External links

• Official website