Karine Elharrar

Karine Elharrar-Hartstein (Hebrew: קָארִין אֶלְהָרָר-הָרְטְשְׂטֵיין, born 9 October 1977) is an Israeli lawyer and politician who currently serves as a member of the Knesset for Yesh Atid. She was Minister of National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Resources from 2021 to 2022.

Karine Elharrar
Ministerial roles
2021–2022Minister of National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Resources
Faction represented in the Knesset
2013–2019Yesh Atid
2019–2020Blue and White
2020–2021Yesh Atid
2022–Yesh Atid
Personal details
Born (1977-10-09) 9 October 1977
Kiryat Ono, Israel

Biography

Elharrar was born in Kiryat Ono to Moti and Colette Elharrar,[1] who were Moroccan Jewish immigrants. Elharrar attended Kugel High School, and studied law at the College of Management Academic Studies for a bachelor's degree, before gaining an LLM from the Washington College of Law at American University.[2] Between 2008 and 2013 she headed the legal clinic at Bar-Ilan University, and specialised in the rights of Holocaust survivors, people with disabilities, and pensioners.[3]

Elharrar lives in Rishon LeZion, and is married with two children. She has muscular dystrophy and uses a wheelchair.[3]

Karine Elharrar (far left) meeting with President Reuven Rivlin on "Leadership and Disability" in January 2018

Political career

She joined the new Yesh Atid party in 2012 and was placed tenth on the party's list for the 2013 Knesset elections.[4] She entered the Knesset as the party won 19 seats. She was placed eighth on the party's list for the 2015 elections,[5] and was re-elected as the party won 11 seats. She was re-elected in elections in April 2019, September 2019 and 2020, during which Yesh Atid was part of the Blue and White alliance.

After being re-elected again in the March 2021 elections, she was appointed Minister of National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Resources in the new government. In June she resigned from the Knesset under the Norwegian Law and was replaced by Inbar Bezek.

Elharrar made headlines during the COP26 conference in Glasgow, after she was forced to return to her hotel in Edinburgh due to the event not being wheelchair-accessible. She received an apology from British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, with the disability charity Scope calling the incident "inexcusable"; however, Elharrar said it was "a good experience to make sure the next UN conference will be accessible."[6]

See also

References
  1. Orly Mirkin (1 May 2013). "I have won a friendly disease because it allows me to adapt to the condition". Mako. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  2. Tarchetsky, Yair (18 June 2011). "Revolution? Social lawyers storming the Bar Association". Globes (in Hebrew). Retrieved 24 January 2013.
  3. Fisher, Gabe (23 January 2013). "All the kingmaker's men, and women". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
  4. Yesh Atid Central Elections Committee
  5. Yesh Atid list Central Elections Committee
  6. "COP26: Boris Johnson apologises to minister over wheelchair access". BBC News. 2 November 2021. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
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