General positions

One of Khenin's main focuses is the rights of workers, saying in April 2014 that, "the problem of low wages is the most critical of all. Not the price of cottage cheese and not even apartment prices".^[2] In 2014, he initiated legislation to increase the minimum wage from 23 NIS to 30 NIS. This legislation received widespread, cross-party support, with backing from 61 of the 120 members of the 19th Knesset.^[3] In December 2014, the minimum wage for workers was raised to 27 NIS through a contract agreement between the Histadrut labor union and the Manufacturers Association of Israel. Dov welcomed the progress, but vowed to keep pushing towards his original goal of a 30 NIS minimum wage.^[4]

Khenin also works to keep the influence of money out of politics, supporting the campaign against the privatization of Israel's natural gas resources. In 2015, Prime Minister Netanyahu's cabinet voted to allow the development of natural gas harvesting off the coast of the Mediterranean sea. Khenin and other critics noted how this would give too much power to the American Nobel Energy group, as well as pose a conflict of interests to Netanyahu. In an effort to make the voting process more fair, Khenin along with MK Zehava Galon asked Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to exclude the Prime Minister from voting on the issue.^[5] Dov also participated in the large protests in response to the deal. At a protest in Haifa, Khenin said, "this struggle is not only an economic struggle or a social struggle. It is also a struggle for democracy. There is no democracy where capital rules.”^[6]

In addition to this, Khenin is also a supporter of broader ecological legislation. In 2012, Dov proposed setting up an "environmental court" for the country. He envisioned a court that would watch over the country's natural resources, as well as safeguard wildlife and ecosystems.^[7] Recognizing the municipality's lack of authority over traffic regulations, Khenin acted in 2008 to pass legislation that would have communities create their own policies. This legislation, aimed at allowing a more direct and local solution to automotive pollution problems, allows for effective public transportation changes to be implemented on the smaller scale.^[8] Khenin also battled against industrial pollution in Haifa. In 2014, Khenin headed a subcommittee calling for stricter environmental standards to be imposed on Haifa's oil refineries located along its port. The panel showed a possible link between pollution from the refineries to increased risk of cancer among residents in the area.^[9]

In regards to past conflicts with Gaza, Khenin is clear that the fault is on Israel. During Operation Protective Edge, Khenin showed vehement opposition to the war, placing complete blame on Prime Minister Netanyahu.^[10] During the summer of 2014 Khenin spoke out against the operation both in the political and social sphere. At a protest in Tel Aviv, Khenin asked a crowd of 7,000, "we must answer truthfully: Has a drop of all this bloodshed really helped bring us to a better place?”^[11]

Mayoral campaign

In 2008, Khenin was the mayoral candidate for the Ir Lekhulanu ("City for All") party. The party was supported by the Jaffa Jewish-Arab list Yafa (whose partners are Balad and Hadash) and endorsed by the Green Movement^[12] in Tel Aviv's 2008 municipal election. Khenin's platform in this election were largely focused on improving civil infrastructure, public transportation, housing, education equality, and ecology. Khenin also ran on a concept of promoting communities within Tel Aviv, saying in an interview, "the most important thing in the city is not the streets and the buildings, but the people and the communities."^[13] Khenin lost the election with 34.3% of the vote to incumbent mayor Ron Huldai, who got 50.6% of the vote. Khenin vowed to continue battling Huldai's policies from the Knesset and Tel Aviv's opposition.^[14]

Legislation

Khenin's legislation focuses mainly on issues pertaining to human rights, ecology, and social change. He has often been outright in his disagreement with the Israeli government's policies, speaking out against environmental,^[15] military^[16] and humanitarian^[17] issues.

17th Knesset

18th Knesset

19th Knesset

20th Knesset

Awards and recognition

Supporting social justice

Khenin advocates for socialism, which he describes as "a great change in the current unequal social-economic system, in which a minority lives in unprecedented abundance, while many are left behind. New kinds of poverty become widespread, the middle strata deteriorate, and social safety nets are being eroded".^[62] As a politician who is considered to be committed to Socialist values, Khenin legislated dozens of social laws, and stood many times in support of workers struggles. Yet, he made it clear on numerous occasions, that his support for Socialism does not mean uncritical support of the model that existed in the Soviet Union. In an article he published in the Communist Party's weekly newspaper in 1991, as the USSR and the East-European Socialist countries were collapsing, Khenin wrote that what is needed is "neither social-democracy nor Stalinism, but a modern and revolutionary Left, that can truly advance the Socialist challenge"^[63]

Supporting peace

Khenin was active in the peace movement since an early age, and was one of the first protesters against the 1982 Lebanon War. Since his election to the Knesset, he continued to express criticism towards the wars in Gaza and towards the 2006 Second Lebanon War. In his opinion, "for Israel, achieving peace is an existential necessity. If Israel will not find a way to live with its neighbors in the great Arab and Muslim region in which we live, we don't have a future here. A true Israeli-Palestinian peace needs to guarantee justice and independence of both peoples, and should give to the Palestinian people what the people in Israel already have: an independent state".^[64]

Supporting Jewish-Arab partnership

As a teenager, Khenin was a member of a joint Jewish-Arab youth movement, and as a student he was active in a joint Jewish-Arab student club called CAMPUS. Having been elected to the Knesset on the list of Hadash, and afterwards in the Joint List, he continued to stress that Jewish-Arab partnership is a cornerstone in his worldview: "The reality in Israel continues to separate between Jews and Arabs, yet the interest of both our peoples lies in creating a partnership that would transform this country into a just and secure place for all. Clearly, Jewish-Arab partnership means swimming against the tide, both among Jews as well as among Arabs. Yet we must swim against the tide of racism and xenophobia, and I am certain, that if we work right, we can also change its direction". ^[64]

Relation to Marxism and Communism

As a teenager, Dov Khenin was a member of the Young Communist League of Israel, and afterwards joined the ranks of the Communist Party of Israel and was elected to its leading bodies. In the late 1980s, he harshly criticized the "deformations in the Soviet regime, which are the result of Stalinism". He defined Stalinism as a terrible deformation of the Communist ideal,^[65] and in an interview in 2009 he said that "I believe Stalin was the worst disaster of 20th-century Socialism. But I still believe in the ideal of transforming our world". He added that "Communism, for me, is a form of horizon: It is a different kind of society, a different kind of division between people... Capitalism wants to establish the rule of profit over everything in life: economy, education, health, the environment. Socialism means the opposite: to try and free as many of these domains from the rule of profit. The Socialism that I aspire to means liberating politics from big capital, and expanding democracy to encompass all walks of life".^{[66][circular reference]}