On February 2, 2012, IDI awarded its Outstanding Parliamentarian Award in a ceremony attended by Knesset Speaker MK Reuven Rivlin and Finance Minister Dr. Yuval Steinitz. The new award is intended to encourage quality legislative activity and recognize members of the Israeli Knesset who act in an exemplary manner.
The recipients of the 2012 award were MKs Dov Henin of Hadash, Uri Maklev of Torah Judaism, and Zevulun Orlev of Habayit Hayehudi. MKs Henin and Maklev were honored as distinguished Knesset members, while MK Orlev was cited as the most distinguished committee chairman, for his leadership of the Knesset Committee on the Rights of the Child.
The Outstanding Parliamentarian Award is awarded to parliamentarians with outstanding records in promoting of legislation, contact with the public, budgetary responsibility, frequency of attendance of committee meetings, number of laws passed, submission of parliamentary questions, motions for the agenda, and the number of parliamentary speeches delivered.
The selection committee included the following members:
- Chair: Israeli Supreme Court Vice President (Ret.) Justice Theodore Or
- Prof. Menachem Ben-Sasson, President of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and former MK
- Former Minister Rabbi Itshak Levy, IDI's Head of Impact
- IDI Senior Fellow Prof. Anita Shapira, Israel Prize laureate in history
- Former Minister Mr. Yair Tzaban
- Bat-Zion Ben-David (winner of IDI's Young Leadership Forum speech contest in 2011)
Video of the Hebrew ceremony can be found below or on the IDI Youtube channel.
Read the Jerusalem Post's coverage of this event.