Nadia Hilou

Nadia Hilou was born in 1953 in Tel Aviv

Hilou was born in Jaffa on 5 July 1953 to a Christian Arab family. She grew up in the Ajami neighborhood and attended the Catholic Terra Santa school. She was active in the Scouts.

She studied social work at Tel Aviv University and earned a BA in 1976. She later returned for an MA in the same field.

From 1976 to 1982 she worked in social services for the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality. From 1983 to 1994 she was a youth probation officer, and she later founded the Hirsch Center for early childhood in Jaffa, which she headed until 2004. In 1997 she founded the Manara association for women and became responsible for the status of women in the Union of Local Authorities.

She joined the Labor Party and was placed 38th on its list in 1996, but did not enter the Knesset. In 2006 she won 15th place and entered the Knesset, where she chaired the Committee on the Rights of the Child. She lost her seat in the 2009 elections.

Her autobiography, The Pioneer from Ajami, was published in Hebrew in 2013. She lived in Jaffa and died of cancer in February 2015. She had a husband and 4 daughters.