MK Yaakov Margi (Shas) has proposed a law that would transfer the responsibility of selecting the images of people to grace the face of the variety of paper monies in our pockets from the advisory board of the Bank of Israel to the Knesset Committee of Education, Culture and Sport.
Shas's goal in this is to fight the lack of inclusion of Sephardic people gracing the faces of our money. The Knesset, elected by the people is more representative of the people and the Israeli culture comprised of a mosaic of cultures.
The proposal is being prepared to go to the Ministerial Legislative Committee and from there to the Knesset.
source: Behadrei
I am surprised the original committee was not sensitive enough to include any mizrahim. Those days should be behind us.
The only problem is that there are so few bills and they are refreshed with new images so infrequently that it is difficult to right this wrong. Meaning, even if this law passes, it won't change anything until the next time bills are redesigned, which will surely be at least a good few years. Then there will also be the issue of who is included. Again, with so few bills, when the next batch of names get selected, what happens when no Yemenite Israeli is included, or an Ethiopian Israeli, or a Russian Israeli (etc etc), leader in whatever field is being chosen from. And, even among the Sephardim, maybe an Iraqi will be selected but Israelis of Egyptian and Moroccan and Tunisian descent will feel slighted. Not everybody can ever be satisfied, unless they print far more denominations of bills, but that might be bad for the economy..
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