Nadia Hilou

Nadia Hilou
Date of birth	5 July 1953 (1953-07-05) (age 58)
Place of birth	Jaffa, Israel
Knessets	17th
Party	Labor Party

Nadia Hilou (Arabic: ناديا حلو‎, Hebrew: נאדיה חילו‎, born 5 July 1953) is an Arab-Israeli politician, who served as a member of the Knesset for the Labor Party between 2006 and 2009. She was the second female Israeli Arab MK after Hussniya Jabara, and also the first female Christian MK.^[1]

Biography

Born in Jaffa to Christian Arab parents, Hilou studied at Tel Aviv University where she gained a BA in social work in 1976. She later returned to qualify for an MA in the same subject 1992. In 1997 she became director of the Division for the Status of Women in the Union of local authorities, and in 2002 became deputy chairwoman of the Naamat Women's Organisation.

Hilou entered politics following the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. She joined the Labour Party, and ran in party primaries prior to the Knesset elections in 1996 and 1999; however, on both occasions she failed to finish high enough up the list to win a seat, and was criticised for not joining one of the Arab parties. However, in the run-up to the 2006 elections Hilou won 15th place (a slot reserved for women) on Labour's list in the party's primaries. The party won 19 seats and Hilou took her place in the Knesset, relinquishing her previous positions. She served as chair of the Committee on the Rights of the Child. One of her first acts was to co-sponsor a successful bill strengthening laws against cyber sex with minors.^[2] She has also initiated legislation on compensating the relatives of murder victims.^[3]

Hilou lives in Jaffa, and is married with four children. In 2007 she voiced a complaint about the treatment of her children at Ben-Gurion Airport by security staff, saying that their treatment was "humiliating."^[4]

She lost her seat in the 2009 elections.

References

1. ^ Meet the New MK: Nadia Hilou Jerusalem Post, 28 April 2006
2. ^ New law to deal tougher with cyber sex with minors Haaretz, 9 January 2007
3. ^ Ministers okay bill to compensate families of murder victims Haaretz, 17 December 2007
4. ^ Arab Labor MK says airport security 'humiliated' her children Haaretz, 1 October 2007

External links

• Official website (Arabic) (Hebrew)
• Nadia Hilou Knesset website

Persondata
Name	Hilou, Nadia
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	5 July 1953
Place of birth	Jaffa, Israel
Date of death
Place of death