Yariv Gideon Levin
Yariv Gideon Levin is Chairman of the Knesset

Knesset

The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...

 House Committee and Member of Knesset

Knesset

The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...

 representing the Likud

Likud

Likud is the major center-right political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin in an alliance with several right-wing and liberal parties. Likud's victory in the 1977 elections was a major turning point in the country's political history, marking the first time the left had...

 Party. He is a lawyer by profession.

Biography

Levin graduated from Boyar High School in Jerusalem. He served in the I.D.F Intelligence Corps as a translator from Arabic to Hebrew and later served as commander of an Arabic translations course. He has an L.L.B from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and worked as a lawyer in the field of civil-commercial law.
Levin is the author of a Dictionary of Economic Terms, Hebrew-Arabic-English, Arabic-Hebrew-English, English-Arabic-Hebrew, published in 1995 by Keset Publishing. The dictionary received the Intelligence Corps Prize for work in the field of translation.
His mother's uncle, Eliyahu Lankin, was commander of the Altalena ship and member of the first Knesset representing the Herut Party. Levin's Sandak at his circumcision ceremony was Menachem Begin.
He is married to Yifat, daughter of former Member of Knesset Yaakov Shamay. They have three children.

Public Activities

Levin began his public activities in the Likud Party's student faction at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he served as Spokesman and later as Deputy Chairman of the faction. In 1997 he headed a team that established the Likud Party branch in the city of Modiin and in 2003 was appointed Chairman. Levin served as head of the election campaign of Chaim Bibas for the position of mayor of Modiin. He represented the opposition to the Disengagement Plan in the supervising committee of the Likud members' poll on the Plan, and represented the Members of Knesset who opposed the Plan in various legal proceedings.

In 2006, the Likud Party Chairman, Benjamin Netanyahu, appointed Levin to head the Likud committee for oversight of government authorities in order to coordinate the Likud's opposition activities against the government and its then Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Levin filed an appeal to the Supreme Court against the Prime Minister which resulted in the appointment of a Minister of Social Welfare after a long period of time during which this position was unoccupied.

In addition to his public activities in the Likud, Levin took part in establishing the New Young Lawyers Faction, which participated in the elections for the Israel Bar Association institutions for the first time in 1999. Levin, who headed the Faction list, was elected Member of the National Council of the Association and Member of the Jerusalem District Committee representing the Faction. In the National Council elections, Levin was elected Vice Chairman of the Israel Bar Association. Levin was also appointed Head of the Bar Association's salaried lawyers committee. In the 2003 elections for the Bar Association's institutions, the New Young Lawyers Faction increased their power and Levin was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Bar Association (2003-2005). During his work in the Bar Association he took part in its legal aide project Sachar Mitzvah and led reforms in the rules of ethics for lawyers. Levin was among the initiators of the survey examining the conduct of judges in the courtrooms. The Bar Association published the results of the survey.

Knesset Activities

In the Likud Party Primaries prior to the 18th Knesset elections, Levin was elected to represent the central region. He was placed in the twenty-first seat on the Likud list and entered the Knesset. On August 3rd, 2009 Levin was appointed Chairman of the Knesset House Committee. Levin also serves as the Knesset representative to the committee for selecting candidates for Attorney General. In July 2011 he was appointed Chair of the Israel-Sierra Leone Parliamentary Friendship Group by the Speaker of the Knesset.
Levin chaired the joint committee of the House Committee and the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee on the Referendum Bill. This bill states that a referendum must be conducted in the event of a plan to relinquish sovereign land. The bill passed second and third readings in November 2010 and became a law.
Following is a list of bills proposed by Levin that, as of July 2011, have been passed on the second and third readings and became laws:

• A law that states that the State of Israel will allocate an annual sum of 4.8 million NIS for original television productions in the Amharic and Tigrigna languages to be produced by teams from the Ethiopian community in Israel and to be broadcast on a dedicated Amharic and Tigrigna TV channel.
• Amendment to law on copyrights that rules a presumption that the person whose name appears on a record as the producer, will be considered the producer.
• Amendment to the law on consumer protection that requires service providers to enable a consumer who pays an account by means of a bank standing order, to determine the day of the month on which the payment will be transferred.
• Amendments to the laws that established memorial centres for Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Rabin, that permits museums within these memorial centres and that cancels the limitations on the duration of the term in office of the directors and board members of the centres.
• Law that extends the supervision over sex offenders to include anyone convicted of offences relating to publication and possession of pornographic material in which minors appear.
• The boycott law – law that provides protection to Israeli citizens, academic institutions, cultural institutions and businesses from boycotts against them because of their activity in Israel or in territories held by Israel. The law allows anyone harmed by such a boycott to receive compensation for damages and also enables the withholding of Government funding from bodies that call for such boycotts.
• A law setting limits on the sale of land and property to foreigners
• A law determining the requirements for a candidate to serve as a Qadi Madhab (Druze religious judge).
• A law carrying out amendments to the provisions of the Law on the Knesset in regard to removal from office of a Knesset speaker or deputy speaker to make the Law conform with the Basic Law: The Knesset.
• Law enabling the Knesset to decide on the cancellation of payments to a Member of Knesset or former Member of Knesset, who has committed serious crimes and has not faced interrogation, trial or served a sentence.
• A law determining the rules of interpreting contracts that cancels the ruling by the Supreme Court known as the "Apropim" ruling.
• Abolition of the Commission for Future Generations at the Knesset
• Amendment to the Government Companies Law, expanding the list of those permitted to serve on the board of directors of government corporations, including people with second or third degrees in the humanities.
• Amendment to the Traffic Law, setting up a national information centre regarding all public transport services.
• Law requiring regular periodic reports to the Knesset Foreign Affairs & Defence Committee by Ministry of Defence departments of rehabilitation and of family and commemoration.
• Law regulating the establishment of confidential sub-committees of the Finance Committee and the limits of confidentiality.
• Law allowing members of ballot station committees to cast their votes at the station where they serve on election day.
• Law regulating the composition of the Knesset Praesidium.
• Law to prevent drunkenness, that gives policemen the power to confiscate alcoholic drinks found in the possession of a minor at any hour of the day.
• Cancellation of the limitation on the number of partners in a professional partnership, specifically of lawyers or accountants
• Law requiring public bodies to provide information to both parents regarding the children of parents who live apart.
• Law requiring the Israel Bar Association to provide free legal aid to people with insufficient means.

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