Born in Toronto, Sharren Haskel isn’t a typical Knesset member. She’s 31, a veterinary nurse and a vegan, and perhaps the last person you’d expect to join Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party. In last March’s Israeli election, Haskel was 31st on the Likud list, but the party only won 30 seats. She took her seat after MK Danny Danon was appointed Israel’s envoy to the United Nations last August.
Mazal tov on your new position. How were you feeling after the election in March?
Remember, they predicted that Likud was going to lose the elections. There was a big media war. So the fact that it was a victory, a huge victory, I was just really happy, dancing and celebrating. I didn’t think once about my position.
When did you move to Israel?
Both of my parents moved here when I was one year old. They got divorced when I was in high school, and my father moved back to Canada. He lives in Toronto now.
How did you end up going to school in Australia?
After the army, I actually moved to the States. I lived in the United States for a year, in California. My sister lived in California, and I decided to study at Santa Monica College.
After a year, I moved to Sydney. I lived there for about six years. I was working in an animal hospital, volunteering for a wildlife NGO that rescues animals and releases them back into nature.
Four years ago, I decided to move back to Israel, mainly for the reason that Israel is the only true home for Israelis. You can be who you are without any needing to justify it to anyone.
That’s an unusual background. Was heading to the Knesset part of your plan all along?
Some people say that with my skills dealing with animals, that I actually acquired just the right skills for the “Knesset jungle.”
Look, I’ve always been active in causes like animal welfare and the environment. When I returned to Israel, I was looking into where I could donate some of my skills, time and thoughts. There was one member of Knesset that I’ve always looked up to, Mickey Eitan. I started to volunteer in his office.
From there, I started getting involved in Likud’s branch in my hometown in Kfar Saba. I first got involved in Likud as a student. I just finished a degree in international relations and political science [through Israel’s Open University] a few months ago.
Is it fair to say that your political views have shifted over the years?
I grew up as a teenager in a peace camp during the times of [former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak] Rabin. With all my friends from junior high, we would go to demonstrations for peace. Then the suicide bombings began, and then I joined the army.
I did my military service as a combat soldier in the border patrol, around Jerusalem during the second intifadah. Slowly I grew up. I started shifting my opinions and agendas.
When you’ve seen people die terrible deaths, and thinking that [the Palestinians] are the people that we wanted to live with, side by side, and the only thing they want to do is to kill Israelis, well, you get a different perspective.
Then, suddenly, the prime minister [Ariel Sharon] decides to completely clear all Jews from Gaza because we think that this is what’s going to create peace and quiet. And then, seeing that they’ve just burned millions of dollars of agricultural equipment that was left for them to start building an economy, voting in a party that has written on its flag to kill all the Jews. The more power the Palestinian Authority had, and the more power Hamas had over territory, over their people, the more violent it became.
It was a long process of sobering up from this dream that was about peace and living one next to another. I say this as someone who grew up with my father, who would take us to Shechem [Nablus] to eat hummus. I knew people who would go to dentists in Kalkiliya. We would buy merchandise for our shop in Gaza.
Israel, for its part, never attacked, just defended itself. We know how to do this really well. No matter what they do, they don’t scare us. One day they’ll wake up and realize that with violence they will not get anything.
You’re the second-youngest Knesset member. Is that an advantage or a disadvantage?
I think it’s a huge advantage. When you come in and you’re young, whether you’ve lived here all your life or you’ve gone out and had a chance to think a little bit differently about things, you think outside of the box. You can bring new and fresh ideas on how to deal with things. You’re not stuck in older ways of thinking.
What are some areas in which you feel you can make a difference?
I have two main fields of interest. First, from a liberal economic ideology, I’m concentrating specifically on the cost of living, food prices in Israel.
There are many barriers and regulations on almost everything in the food industry, which makes it difficult for people to develop their businesses and to actually sell to customers. Customers are paying a very high price. Everything here is so heavily regulated, so I’m working on releasing a lot of these barriers and regulations in order to eventually create better pricing.
The second thing is the pollution from the Palestinian Authority – industrial sewage, carcinogenic chemicals, running free through Israel’s rivers and ending up in the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. Pollution doesn’t recognize any borders.
During the Oslo accords, the Palestinians committed to build facilities to clean the water and to reuse water for agriculture. It’s been more than 20 years, and they’ve actually received a lot of funds from the States and the European Union to build all these facilities, but they haven’t done it. All this money has somehow disappeared, and we end up with the pollution.
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Fish and wildlife, vegetation, it all suffers. Last year, there was three-metre high toxic foam running through the Alexander River, killing everything on its way. Israel’s biggest water supply is under Judea and Samaria, a mountain aquifer. If toxic chemicals go into the groundwater there, it’s going to be irreversible, and there’s nothing we can do.
And they’re using it against us. They take pictures of open sewage around cities and rivers, to tell the world “Look how we live.” “Look at our polluted streets. It’s all the fault of Israel” – another lie they’re spreading to get donations to build recycling plants.
You’ve also been outspoken about marijuana legalization. Isn’t medical marijuana already legal here?
You can get already get a prescription for medical cannabis, but it’s a very long, very bureaucratic process, relying on committees and clerks to decide who’s going to get it or not.
I’ve seen so many people who are suffering every single day. They’re in pain, and committees in the Ministry of Health do not allow it. The system that every prescription has to go through the Ministry of Health is wrong. These decisions should be left in the hands of doctors and specialists. We allow doctors to treat patients with much harsher drugs. We should trust doctors to prescribe this medicine as well.
The second thing is the decriminalization of cannabis. As a modern country, we understand that when people are addicted to drugs, it’s a disease. It’s not a crime.
What do you think of Canada’s recent election results?
I know that [former prime minister Stephen] Harper was a true friend to Israel. Loyalty is very important in the international community. I really hope that the new government will stay on the straight path and strengthen the connection and bond between the two countries.
This interview has been edited and condensed for style and clarity.