Israeli MKs discover Facebook

Facebook hits parliament: MK Yoel Hasson (Kadima) and MK Israel Hasson (Yisrael Beiteinu) have both opened an account on the popular social networking website Facebook. Other parliament members told Ynet that they were also considering signing up for the network, which boasts tens of thousands of Israeli users and tens of millions of users worldwide.

In the meantime, dozens of parliamentary assistants and MK's spokespeople and advisors have signed up for the site as well.

Deputy coalition chairman Yoel Hasson, who opened the account two weeks ago, already has 40 friends on Facebook, and is working hard on expanding the list daily.

Hasson said that he was getting friendship requests on a daily basis, as well as personal messages from surfers. "The site is an excellent way to communicate with people. Through Facebook I can reach a young audience, the kind of people I don’t easily meet in other places, and for a young MK that deals with student affairs, this is highly important," he explained.

"I occasionally receive messages and ideas from the surfers, and for me this is another channel for communicating and getting feedback on my parliamentary activity," he added.

The Kadima MK said that some of the users were skeptical about his true identity, asking whether he was really an MK. "I'm convinced that in today's technological era, the legislators must be accessible to the public through social networks of this kind as well."

Another lawmaker, Yisrael Beiteinu MK Israel Hasson, has opened his own Facebook account last Thursday, and even started a new Facebook group titled, "For the Country and Against Draft-Dodging."

"I believe it is very important that we use all the means at our disposal to promote the ideas we believe in, and I think we cannot ignore social and technological phenomena like this social network," he stated.