Incoming Knesset member Shira Shapira of the Yashar party, led by Gadi Eisenkot, arrived at the Knesset on Tuesday ahead of her swearing-in as a member of the 26th Knesset, carrying a photograph of her late son, Aner Shapira.
Aner was murdered on October 7 after throwing back seven grenades hurled by Hamas terrorists into a roadside shelter where young people fleeing the Nova music festival had taken refuge.
Shapira arrived with her family. Speaking to reporters, she struggled to hold back tears as she said that Aner, too, had come with her, pointing to his photograph.
"My goal is to bring his approach, his ideas and his worldview into the Knesset, and, with God's help, succeed in putting them into practice," she said.
Asked what Aner would have wanted her to promote, she replied: "That we learn to see our differences as a strength, as an advantage. That we are different from one another, but precisely because of that, we are the strongest puzzle there is."
Shapira said she had visited her son's grave on Mount Herzl before heading to the Knesset. "I always stop at Mount Herzl. It's not that I need to go there, but I feel that I need to make this symbolic gesture," she said.
Asked whether she had ever imagined entering politics, she replied: "No. I came because of Aner. I am here on his behalf."
She went on to outline the issues she intends to advance in the Knesset, placing particular emphasis on the ability to grow through crisis and trauma.
"I think we need to promote the idea of how to grow through pain, how to grow through trauma, how to grow through crisis. Whether as individuals, as the communities in the Gaza border area that managed to get back on their feet and rebuild their lives, or as Israeli society and as a country after three difficult years. We need to bring hope, vision and action," she said.
Shapira added that she also intends to work on behalf of the younger generation.
"The second thing I talk about all the time is our young people. Aner is forever 22 and a half, and he will always represent Israel's young people. I am here for them," she said.
She concluded with a call for unity and cooperation across Israeli society and the political system: "There is no place for boycotts; there is a place for working together."
