Several aspiring legal eagles from the AMIT Gwen Straus Jr. and Sr. Science High School for Boys in Ra’anana submitted bills to the Knesset to rectify what they consider pressing issues in Israel as part of their studies for the bagrut exam in law.
Emanuel Avraham, 18, decided to tackle the subject of employers who flout the law and don’t contribute to their employees’ pension funds. Avraham’s proposed legislation, for which he scored 100, would close a loophole by having the funds transferred to the National Insurance Institute (bituach leumi), which would then allow the employee to select the pension fund of his/her choice.
Fellow students Itai Aronson and Harel Tchinio proposed a bill that would end the “majority rules” verdict in cases where a panel of judges are not in unanimous agreement. Their bill would forbid the conviction of a defendant in cases where one judge on the panel believed the suspect to be innocent. “It’s preferable to have 1,000 criminals on the street than one innocent person in jail,” Tchinio said.
Ram Ohev-Shalom and Roee Nachum focused on an issue that has received increasing attention in Israel—accidents involving electric bicycles. Their draft bill would require e-bike riders to take a written “theory” test, just as drivers are required to do. Their goal is to better educate electric bike riders in the hopes that understanding road rules would minimize the number of accidents involving such bicycles.
Attorney Asher Edri, who heads the school’s law studies and who mentored the students, said that their proposals have been submitted to members of the Knesset for review. “We hope this indeed happens, so that the students will have completed the process of creating significant legal change that will benefit society at large,” he said.
Photo credit: Asaf Friedman
