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Binyamin Ben-Eliezer | |
|---|---|
בנימין בן אליעזר | |
.jpg) Binyamin Ben-Eliezer in 2013 | |
| Ministerial roles | |
| 1992–1996 | Minister of Housing & Construction |
| 1999–2001 | Deputy Prime Minister |
| 1999–2001 | Minister of Communications |
| 2000–2001 | Minister of Housing & Construction |
| 2001–2002 | Minister of Defense |
| 2005 | Minister of National Infrastructure |
| 2006–2009 | Minister of National Infrastructure |
| 2009–2011 | Minister of Industry, Trade & Labour |
| Faction represented in theKnesset | |
| 1984 | Yahad |
| 1984–1991 | Alignment |
| 1991–1999 | Labor Party |
| 1999–2001 | One Israel |
| 2001–2014 | Labor Party |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1936-02-12)12 February 1936 |
| Died | 28 August 2016(2016-08-28) (aged 80) |
Binyamin "Fuad"Ben-Eliezer (Hebrew:בנימין "פואד" בן אליעזר,Arabic:بنيامين بن إليعازر; 12 February 1936 – 28 August 2016) was an Iraqi-born Israeli politician and general. He served as a member of theKnesset between 1984 and 2014, and held several ministerial posts, includingMinister of Industry, Trade and Labour;Minister of Defense; andDeputy Prime Minister. He served as leader of theIsraeli Labor Party between 2001 and 2002.
Ben-Eliezer was born inBasra in southernIraq to an Iraqi-Jewish family, the son of Saleh and Farha Elazar. His name at birth wasFuad Elazar.[1] Heimmigrated to Israel in 1950, where his name wasHebraized to Binyamin Ben-Eliezer. He was drafted into theIsrael Defense Forces in 1954 and became a career soldier.
He lived inRishon LeZion and was married with five children. Some of his granddaughters live in the United States. He was fluent in Hebrew, Arabic and English.
Ben-Eliezer was drafted into the IDF in 1954 and served in theGolani Brigade. He served in the Brigade as a soldier and as asquad leader. In 1956 he became aninfantry officer after completingOfficer Candidate School and return to the Golani Brigade, and fought in theSinai war. Ben-Eliezer served as a Commander ofsayerert shaked in theSix-Day War and was wounded in theWar of Attrition. In theYom Kippur War he served as a brigadeExecutive officer.[2] In 1977, he was appointed First Commanding Officer inSouthern Lebanon, serving as the army liaison between theLebanese Christianmilitias and Israel. He was Military Governor of theIsraeli-occupied West Bank (1978–81) and wasCoordinator of Government Activities in the Territories from 1983 until 1984. He completed his military service with the rank ofBrigadier General.
After retiring from the army, Ben-Eliezer was briefly a member of theTami Party, a grouping of Israeli Jews of "Mizrahi" or Middle Eastern origin.[3]Ben-Eliezer was first elected to theKnesset in1984 on theYahad list, which merged into theAlignment during his first term. He was re-elected in1988 and1992, by which time the Alignment had become the Labor Party. In July 1992 he was appointedMinister of Housing and Construction inYitzhak Rabin's government. He retained his seat in the1996 elections, but lost his place in the cabinet as Labor went into opposition. FollowingEhud Barak's victory in the1999 Prime Minister election, Ben-Eliezer returned to the cabinet as Deputy Prime Minister andMinister of Communications. From October 2000 to 3 March 2001, he also served as Minister of Housing and Construction.
AfterAriel Sharon (leader ofLikud) defeated Barak in theFebruary 2001 snap election for Prime Minister, Ben-Eliezer was appointedMinister of Defense in the national unity government. He was elected the new leader of the Labor Party ina late 2001 leadership election held after Barak's resignation as leader. Ben-Eliezer left his post as Minister of Defense on 2 October 2002 when Labor withdrew from the coalition. His tenure as Labor Party leader ended the following month afterAmram Mitzna unseated him in the20 November 2002 leadership election.
Re-elected again to the Knesset on the Labor Party list in2003, Ben-Eliezer served as Minister of National Infrastructure from 10 January 2005 until 23 November, when Labor left the government. In theLabor Party leadership election on 9 November 2005, he came third with 16.8% of the vote, behindAmir Peretz andShimon Peres. He retained his seat again in the2006 elections, and was appointed Minister of National Infrastructure inEhud Olmert's government.
In March 2007, Ben-Eliezer was forced to cancel a trip toEgypt after being warned byEgyptian intelligence that he could be arrested, when Egyptian media and opposition implicated him in the 'massacre' of 250 EgyptianPOWs during the Six-Day War following an Israeli documentary. However, the allegations are disputed by both Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and the documentary film-makerRan Edelist.[4] Placed eighth on the party's list, he was re-elected again in the2009 elections and appointed Minister of Industry, Trade and Labour. He resigned from the cabinet after Ehud Barak left the Labor Party to establishIndependence in January 2011.[5]
He contractedpneumonia in March 2011 and was put into a medicallyinduced coma, eventually making a full recovery.[6] He was re-elected in the2013 elections, but resigned from the Knesset for health reasons in December 2014, and was replaced byRaleb Majadele.[7]
Ben-Eliezer was a candidate to succeedShimon Peres asPresident of Israel in2014, but withdrew after allegations of corruption surfaced against him.[8]
Ben-Eliezer was considered a hawk onforeign policy and was one of the main architects of theinvasion of Lebanon as well as a strong proponent forOperation Defensive Shield. He advocated halting peace talks withPalestinians until there was an end to violence against Israelis, although he believed once their leadership is able to put a stop to terrorism and abandon it as a political tool there should be "compromise" in final status talks with thePalestinian Authority.
Ben-Eliezer warned in 2012: "So far Palestinians have kept quiet, but one day they will awake and the explosion will happen. People don't accept [being] under military rule for 50 years."[9]
On the afternoon of 28 August 2016, Binyamin died at theTel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center from kidney disease.[10] He was 80 years old.
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| Preceded by | Labor Party Leader 2001–2002 | Succeeded by |
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