Ya'akov Meridor | |
|---|---|
יעקב מרידור | |
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| Ministerial roles | |
| 1981–1984 | Minister of Economics & Inter-Ministry Co-ordination |
| Faction represented in theKnesset | |
| 1949–1951 | Herut |
| 1955–1965 | Herut |
| 1965–1969 | Gahal |
| 1981–1984 | Likud |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 29 September 1913 Lipno,Congress Poland,Russian Empire |
| Died | 30 June 1995(1995-06-30) (aged 81) |
| Signature |  |
Ya'akov Meridor (Hebrew:יעקב מרידור; bornYaakov Viniarsky 29 September 1913 – 30 June 1995) was an Israeli politician,Irgun commander and businessman.
Yaakov Viniarsky (later Meridor) was born in the Polish town ofLipno to a Jewish family of middle-class merchants. In 1930, after hearing reports of the first Arab rebellion inMandatory Palestine, he became a member of theBetar Movement. He studied law at theUniversity of Warsaw.
Meridor died in 1995 at the age of 81, and was survived by his three children.[1] He and his wife Ziporah are buried in theNahalat Yitzhak Cemetery inGivatayim.
In 1932, heimmigrated to Palestine and joined theIrgun a year later. In 1941, he accompaniedDavid Raziel on a mission to Iraq to sabotage oil fields on the outskirts of Baghdad. When Raziel was killed along with a British officer, Meridor returned to Palestine and took over as Chief Commander of the Irgun.
In 1943, Meridor relinquished command of the Irgun toMenachem Begin, but held senior positions in the Irgun until theHaganah handed him over to the British in 1945. He was sent tovarious detention camps in Africa, and carried out daring escape attempts. He was so eager to escape he refused to take a camp leadership position despite his senior rank in the Irgun.
He finally succeeded in escaping in 1948, and arrived in Israel on the day independence was declared. His escape was assisted by a Sudanese Jew named Mayer Malka who provided kosher food and visited him when he was a prisoner in African detention camps. He hid in Malka's home in Khartoum prior to returning to Palestine.
Meridor writes in his biography that Menachem Begin was so overjoyed to hear about his escape, that he sent a communique stating that Meridor arrived in Palestine and partook in an operation in Pardes Hana on 7 April 1948, despite the fact that at the time Meridor was in Paris.[2]
According to Meridor, this is why it was written in an article inThe Scotsman that the Irgun announced in Tel Aviv on 7 April 1948 that 'Jacob Meridor' had "taken over his war assignment" in Palestine.The Scotsman also reported that Meridor's first command was the raid onPardes Hana military camp, South of Haifa, in which 6 British soldiers and their commanding officer, Lieut-Colonel G.L. Hilderbrand, were killed.[3]
Under Begin, he was charged with the task of managing the Irgun's integration in the newly formedIsrael Defense Forces.
Meridor co-founded a company that imported canned meat. Due to theausterity regulations in force at the time, the company suffered financially and it was bought out by the Israeli government. In 1960, while still in the Knesset, Meridor set up the deep-sea fishing company "Atlantic Fishing Company" jointly with businessman Mila Brenner (1921–1999). In 1962, they set up the shipping company "Maritime Fruit Carriers Company Ltd." with the aim to break into the then highly fragmented oceangoing refrigerated cargo business. The company grew rapidly, and at its height, operated 42 ships, and also extended its operations to oil shipping and the construction of tankers. As a result of his business activities, Meridor became wealthy. In his bookTerror out of Zion,J. Bowyer Bell noted: "One of the greatest transformations has been that of Meridor, who was first elected to the Knesset with the occupation of worker, but who has since become Israel's greatest shipping tycoon, a rival to the Greeks, a man whose photograph has been inTime, who appears more often inMonaco than alongDizengoff Street."[4] The company experienced severe liquidity problems due to the decline in oil shipping during the1973 oil crisis. It went bust in 1976. Part of its fleet was taken over by theCunard Line.
Meridor was one of the founders ofHerut and was elected to theKnesset in Israel'sfirst elections. He retained his seat in elections in 1951, 1955, 1959, 1961 and again in 1965 after Herut had merged with theLiberal Party to formGahal (which later becameLikud). He also published a book in 1955, entitledLong is the Path to Freedom: Chronicles of one of the Exiles. However, he lost his seat in the1969 elections.
Meridor resurrected his political career in 1981 when he was elected to the Knesset on Likud's list. He was appointedMinister of Economics and Inter-Ministry Coordination byPrime Minister Begin, and was seen as a potential future Prime Minister. That same year, his political career was severely damaged by a media fiasco. Meridor announced that a scientist had invented a revolutionary chemical process for energy production. He used the analogy that this process could use the energy of a simple light bulb to light a city likeRamat Gan. The analogy stuck and created a media frenzy, making front-page news. The scientist was then revealed to be Danny Berman, a hoaxer with multiple fraud convictions. Meridor became a national laughingstock. He refused to resign,[5] and retained his ministerial position whenYitzhak Shamir took over from Begin in 1983, but lost his seat again in the1984 elections. He did not return to the Knesset.
Streets were named after him in theTel Baruch neighborhood in Tel Aviv-Yafo, in the Kfar Ganim neighborhood inPetah Tikva, inAshkelon and inBeer Sheva. On April 27, 2003Israel Post issued a postage stamp in memory of Meridor
Media related toYa'akov Meridor at Wikimedia Commons
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