Shirly Pinto

Former Member of Knesset

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Shirly Pinto

שירלי פינטו

Shirly Pinto, 2017

Faction represented in the Knesset
2021–2022| Yamina
2022| National Unity
Personal details
Born|  (1989-03-15) 15 March 1989 (age 36)
Kiryat Bialik, Israel
Website| shirlypinto.co.il

Shirly Pinto (Hebrew: שירלי פינטו; born 15 March 1989) is an Israeli Deaf social-political activist, who served as Member of Knesset for National Unity.

Pinto is fluent in Israeli Sign Language as well as Hebrew and is one of the founders of The Israeli Center for Deaf Studies [he].[1]

## Biography

[edit]

Pinto was born to Deaf parents, and raised in the Krayot. Her mother is Deaf and blind, and part of the Nalaga'at theater group.[2]

Pinto attended the Carmel Zvulun Regional High School in Kibbutz Yagur,[3] electing to study graphic design and social science. She received a complete matriculation diploma, graduating with honors.

Pinto spent most of her childhood with her mother's parents, as well as with her signing parents. This way she acquired a full knowledge of two languages, Israeli sign language alongside Hebrew language, which gave her emotional strength and self-esteem between the two worlds. Since her childhood, she has seen the difficulty and lack of linguistic accessibility in her parents, who coped daily with the authorities and the general public. Pinto's life was also a daily struggle because of a lack of awareness in the public. When she grew up, she decided to devote her life to changing this reality of Deaf and hard-of-hearing people.

At the age of 18, despite being exempted from compulsory military service, Pinto enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces. She served in the Israeli Air Force Technical Corps. After the initial two-year service, Pinto continued as a career officer, and in 2009 she received an outstanding medal from the Air Force commander and was recognized by President Shimon Peres for her exceptional service.[4][5]

In 2011 Pinto enrolled for a law degree at the Netanya Academic College and participated in the college's excellence program. During her studies, she participated in a delegation to the International Labour Organization at the United Nations in Geneva. In 2013 she worked as a paralegal for Judge Benjamin Arnon in Israel's Central District Court. In 2014 she interned for Member of Knesset Karin Elharar, handling legislation, public appeals and drafting policies to aid people with disabilities.

Since 2016 Pinto has been a lecturer for the studies of Sign Language Interpreting, at Bar-Ilan University.

In 2017 Pinto interned at the law office of Furth, Wilensky, Mizrachi and Knaani.[6]

## Public activism

[edit]

Shirley Pinto (standing seventh) is hosted at the Israeli President's House at a special "Leadership and Disability" meeting, in which research and a survey of the public attitudes towards the leadership of people with disabilities were presented, January 2018

In 2014 Pinto joined the "Shema for Education and Rehabilitation of Deaf and hard-of-hearing Children and Youth",[7] where she was later employed as an instructor and an informal educational activity coordinator. Later she was appointed as a manager of the regional Gush Dan club. In May 2015, Pinto initiated an Israeli delegation to India, for assistance and legal-educational counselling to deaf children and youth in Indore.

In 2016 she established the Israeli Center for the Deaf Studies [he] with other deaf founders. Its goals are to promote the status of Deaf and hard-of-hearing people who use sign language; to recognize the equality of sign language and spoken languages; and to create an awareness of the need for the Deaf to be accessible and accepted by the general public.

Pinto led the "I sign I am Equal"[8] public campaign for changing the consciousness of the importance of sign language in public, and for promoting legislation of the Israeli Sign Language as a recognized language in Israel. In this campaign, she led an awareness week of the Deaf people,[9][10] under the slogan "I sign, I am whole" (a Hebrew word play). The campaign swept hundreds of thousands, and Education Minister Naftali Bennett joined.[11] Following the campaign, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev was the first university in Israel to recognize Israeli Sign Language as an official language for Deaf people in Israel. In March 2017, the university hosted a ceremony in which Pinto presented a certificate of appreciation from the Center for the Deaf Studies to Rivka Carmi, the president of the university, for its actions.[12]

In 2017, Pinto initiated a bill to make public service announcements on the television in sign language, which was led by MK Issawi Frej and MK Eitan Cabel.[13] Later that year, in cooperation with the Ruderman Family Foundation, Pinto arranged a meeting with Academy Award winning actress Marlee Matlin with the community of the Deaf and hard of hearing people in Israel. Over 300 people attended the event, hosted at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque.[14][15]

Over the years Pinto has spearheaded public campaigns for better inclusion of Deaf people in society. She had dealt with problems in the education system,[16] the lack of accessibility to health services[17] and lack of adequate public infrastructure.[18] Since 2015 Pinto has worked to strengthen the ties between Israel and the countries of the world, to improve the visibility of the population of Deaf and hard of hearing and the Advancement of Israel, and was chosen to represent Israel at a conference of the World Federation of the Deaf in November 2017 in Budapest in Hungary.[19] During the conference, Pinto learned about a global initiative to prevent the sterilization of Deaf women.[20] Pinto also met Helga Stevens, a Deaf woman and a member of the European Parliament,[21] and told her about the Deaf community in Israel versus the Deaf communities in Europe. At her speech at the Federation, Pinto spoke about the importance of integrating Deaf and hard-of-hearing people who use both sign language and non-sign language as one whole population.[22] Upon her return to Israel, Pinto was interviewed on Channel 20 about it.

At the beginning of October 2017, Pinto turned to the welfare minister Haim Katz and asked him that during the intermediate days of Sukkot and Passover, the telephone relay service should be operated by the Institute for the Advancement of the Deaf. At the beginning of December 2017, Katz replied to Pinto that her request had been received and that the service would be operated on the basis of a shortened working day.

On 5 December 2017, Pinto told the Knesset Science and Technology Committee that Deaf and hard-of-hearing customers do not hear their names on the announcement after ordering self-service meals, and suggested that the business would lend them a vibrating sign which would be drawn when their order was ready.[23]

On 3 January 2018, Pinto, a State Control Committee in the Knesset headed by Shelly Yachimovich, said that 45 hours of translation per year is not enough for Deaf Holocaust survivors, who need to get to hospitals and doctors younger.[18]

Pinto was a candidate for the municipal elections in Ramat Gan.[24][25][26]

### Interviews to promote the integration of the Deaf and hard of hearing

[edit]

Pinto interviewed[19][20] the teaching of Deaf students and hearing-impaired individual schools combined and combined classroom, with no individual combined acoustic accessibility,[21] and combined classroom teachers acquire knowledge of Israeli sign language consisting of only 36 hours. Pinto also wrote a column about it in Israel Today.[22]

At the opening of the Awareness Week for the Deaf, on 10 September 2017, she spoke of her work as a single Deaf practitioner throughout the country in a law firm, of Deaf lawyers who became self-employed due to their lack of integration into law firms, and of the need for accessibility in employment and health services.[23]

Following the exposure of sexual harassment by Harvey Weinstein, Pinto said that the Deaf woman's difficulty in dealing with sexual harassment is double, both as a woman and as a Deaf woman, who is forced to communicate with the professional staff on the subject. Pinto's conclusion was that a sign language control team was needed, preferably for Deaf professionals.[24] On 12 July 2021, Pinto made her first speech at the Knesset plenum.[27][28]

Pinto announced on 3 August 2022 that she would not join Zionist Spirit (a merger of Yamina and Derekh Eretz) ahead of the 2022 Israeli legislative election.[29] She had joined the National Unity Party's electoral list on 22 August.[30]

## Personal life

[edit]

Pinto lives in Ramat Gan and is married to Michael Kadosh, a player in the Israeli Futsal national team and an employee as an engineer in telecommunications in Israel. They have a son and a daughter.[2]

## See also

[edit]

* Deaf Culture

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Wootliff, Raoul (8 January 2019). "New Right announces deaf rights activist as first-ever deaf Knesset candidate". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
2. ^ a b Shirley Pinto (22 December 2019). "How to make Hanukkah accessible to a Deaf child". Facebook (in Hebrew). Retrieved 1 January 2020.
3. ^ "Beit Hinuch Carmel Zvulun, Kibbutz Yagur". carmel.tik-tak.net (in Hebrew). Retrieved 30 December 2019.
4. ^ Shirley Pinto (12 August 2019). "Pictured: At the President's Award of Merit, Independence Day 2009". Facebook (in Hebrew). Retrieved 30 December 2019.
5. ^ Haggai Huberman (14 February 2020). "הקול של בעלי המוגבלויות" [The voice of the disabled people] (in Hebrew). מצב הרוח. pp. 26–27. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
6. ^ "FWMK". fwmk-law.co.il. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
7. ^ "Shema". shema.org.il (in Hebrew). Retrieved 2 January 2020.
8. ^ I sign, I am Equal on Facebook
9. ^ Deaf People Awareness Week 2016 on YouTube, 18 September 2016
10. ^ Shirley Pinto (20 September 2016). "לדעת לבד מתי מגיע תורי" [To know alone when my turn comes]. Ynet (in Hebrew). Retrieved 16 February 2020.
11. ^ "Bennett: "I sign, I am whole"". Twitter (in Hebrew). 20 September 2016. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
12. ^ Shirley Pinto (28 March 2017). "מדרום תגיע הבשורה" [From the south the annunciation would come]. Facebook (in Hebrew). Retrieved 16 February 2020.
13. ^ Economic Committee (25 July 2016). "בקרוב: גם בפרסומות בטלוויזיה יופיעו כתוביות לטובת לקויי שמיעה" [Coming soon: TV commercials will also have subtitles for hearing impaired]. Knesset (in Hebrew). Retrieved 16 February 2020.
14. ^ Jerusalem Post staff (28 May 2017). "Oscar winner Marlee Matlin to receive prestigious award in Israel". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 19 February 2020.
15. ^ Yaakov Schwartz (22 June 2017). "Actress Marlee Matlin teaches tolerance – and how to sign 'Tel Aviv' – during Israel tour". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 19 February 2020. "She was further scheduled to meet with over 300 people from Israel's Deaf community."
16. ^ Shirley Pinto (6 September 2017). "שפת הסימנים: הדרך שלנו ללמוד" [Sign Language: Our way to study]. Israel Hayom (in Hebrew). Retrieved 22 February 2020.
17. ^ Revital Blumenfeld (19 September 2017). ""כאילו אנחנו אוויר": מאות אלפי חירשים לא זוכים למתורגמן בטיפול הרפואי" ["As we are an air": Hundreds of thousands of Deaf people do not receive an interpreter in the medical treatment]. Walla! (in Hebrew). Retrieved 22 February 2020.
18. ^ Aviv Lavi (25 September 2017). "שנת הלימודים החלה – אולם כיתות עבור ילדים כבדי שמיעה טרם הונגשו" [The school year has begun – however, classes for hard of hearing children have not yet been accessed]. Army Radio (in Hebrew). Retrieved 22 February 2020.
19. ^ Shirly Pinto (4 November 2017). "WFD Conference 2017". Facebook. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
20. ^ Shirly Pinto (9 November 2017). "מסתבר שהגענו למציאות שניתן לעקר נשים חירשות ללא הסכמתן וידיעתן" [It turns out that we have reached a reality that deaf women can be sterilized without their consent and knowledge]. Facebook. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
21. ^ ECR Group (10 November 2017). "So proud of our Flemish member Helga Stevens MEP for being included in POLITICO Europe's 2017 Women Shaping Brussels list". Facebook. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
22. ^ Shirly Pinto (11 November 2017). "הגיע הזמן לאחד בין חירשים וכבדי שמיעה דוברי שפת הסימנים ולא דוברי שפת הסימנים, כאוכלוסייה אחת שלמה" [It is the time to unite the Deaf and the hard of hearing who speak sign language and those who do not sign, as a whole population]. Facebook. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
23. ^ The fourth session of the 20th Knesset (5 December 2017). "פרוטוקול מס' 146 מישיבת ועדת המדע והטכנולוגיה" [Protocol No. 146 of the meeting of the Science and Technology Committee]. Knesset. pp. 35–36. Retrieved 19 July 2021.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
24. ^ Israel Hayom
25. ^ Have not you come out yet to vote? it is time!
26. ^ I want to heartily thank all of you for the support, the warm words, and the praises throughout the campaign.
27. ^ Naftali Bennett (13 July 2021). "MK Shirley Pinto Kadosh made history with the first-ever speech in sign language in the Knesset". Facebook. with Hebrew and English subtitles. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
28. ^ Moti Karpel (15 July 2021). "אזרחי ישראל זכו השבוע לרגע אחד של חסד מנבחרי הציבור שלהם" [This week, the citizens of Israel received one moment of grace from their elected officials]. Facebook (in Hebrew). Retrieved 16 July 2021.
29. ^ Ash Obel (3 August 2022). "Yamina MK Pinto, senior official reject joining Shaked's Zionist Spirit". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 3 August 2022.
30. ^ "Israel Elections: Shirly Pinto leaves Zionist Spirit for Gantz's National Unity". The Jerusalem Post. 22 August 2022. Retrieved 23 August 2022.

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Shirly Pinto.

* Official website (in Hebrew)
* Shirley Pinto Kadosh on the Knesset website
* Shirly Pinto on Facebook