From Bondi Vet to Israel’s ‘snake pit’

When a large snake slithered about the Knesset, capturing it would have been easy for its newest member, Sharren Haskel.

Portrait of Likud parliament member Sharren Haskel. September 25, 2015. Photo by Miriam Alster/FLASH90

When a large black-headed ground snake was discovered slithering about the halls of the Knesset — the Israeli parliament — on a scorching summer’s day, it elicited guffaws among the political correspondents that the reptile would feel right at home.

Capturing the non-venomous creature and releasing it back into the wild would have been a simple task had the Knesset’s newest member, Sharren Haskel, been at work, thanks to her years of experience with Wires, the NSW wildlife rescue organisation.

Ms Haskel, 31, was last month sworn in as a representative for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, fulfilling a political ambition that had flourished since return to Israel three years ago.

Ms Haskel spent almost seven years living in Sydney, which she proudly calls her “second home”. For a time she was even an Australian citizen, but Israel demands foreign citizenships be forfeited upon entering the Knesset.

During her stint here, she studied veterinary science and landed a job at the Bondi Junction clinic — most famous for being the setting of her colleague Chris Brown’s hit TV show Bondi Vet.

It was her time as a volunteer for Wires where she became intimate with Australia’s infamous fauna. “I had a call for a black snake, a red belly, from Bondi,” she recalls over the phone from Israel.

“People were just saying they were really scared of it. They rang me and I ran straight down.

“It would have been at least 80cm, maybe even a metre — I think someone must have brought him from the Blue Mountains but then it grew and they didn’t know what to do with it.”

She plans to pursue a vigorous environmental agenda in her new role in the centre-right Likud, which has been the biggest party in the three governing coalitions since Mr Netanyahu began his second stint as Prime Minister in 2009.

Ms Haskel said she had been impressed by Australian values. “Respect the environment, respect other people, tolerance — you know, it gave me a different perspective about cultural things.

“From the age of 22 to 28 I lived in Australia, so much of my adult life was there and I think I came back with a big part of me that feels Australian and brought back a lot of Australian values.

“I’m in the Likud party and bringing with me a lot of the environment and animal care agenda and I think I’m experienced in a lot of things. I believe in a liberal capitalist economy,” which she said “absolutely feels like it is more present in Australia than in Israel.”

She has vowed not be an invisible backbencher, and to use her international experience through her position on the Knesset’s influential foreign affairs and defence committee.

She also wants to help broaden Israel’s relations with Australia, which will be strengthened in the next month or so as the finishing touches are put on the first working holiday visa scheme.

Israeli political life is a notoriously brutal undertaking.

But does even that compare to battling poisonous snakes or hand-wringing eastern suburbs pet owners?

“As a veterinary nurse, you go back home and you have scratches and bites and sometimes have a really emotional and difficult day. And I think in politics sometimes you go home scratched and bitten but not physically.

“I think in both jobs you get a lot of gratitude, and it fills you with happiness and a sense of purpose.”