Avraham Burg
Encyclopedia
Avraham "Avrum" Burg is an Israel
i author
; he was formerly a member of the Knesset
, a chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel
and a Speaker of the Knesset.
neighborhood. His father was Yosef Burg
, a German
-born Israeli politician and long-time government minister for the National Religious Party
. His mother Rivka (née Slonim), was born in Hebron
and survived the Arab massacre in 1929.
In the Israel Defense Forces
, Burg served as a lieutenant in the paratroopers brigade. He graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
with a degree in the social sciences.
Burg is married to Yael and lived in Nataf
, a rural community on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Burg and his wife have six children. Burg acquired French citizenship in 2004. Burg lives in Nataf now.
. In 1985, he served as advisor on Diaspora
affairs to Prime Minister
Shimon Peres
. In 1988, he was elected to the Knesset
as a member of the Alignment
.
In 1992, when the Alignment merged with the Labor Party, he was reelected to Knesset. In 1995, he was appointed Chairman of the Jewish Agency
and the World Zionist Organization
, and resigned from the Knesset. As head of the Jewish Agency, he worked to recover Jewish property lost during the Holocaust, and in the transfer of ca. half a million predominantly Jewish citizens from the Commonwealth of Independent States
(the former Soviet Union
) to Israel.
In 1999, Burg returned to domestic politics, and was elected to the Knesset on Ehud Barak
's One Israel
list (an alliance of Labor, Meimad
and Gesher). Burg was elected Speaker of the Knesset, a position he held until early 2003. In his capacity as speaker of the Knesset he served as interim President of Israel
for 20 days, from 12 July until 1 August 2000 when the presidency was vacant following Ezer Weizman
's resignation. Following Barak's defeat in the 2001 election for Prime Minister and his subsequent resignation, Burg ran for the Labor Party leadership, but lost. Nevertheless, he retained his seat in the Knesset in the 2003 elections.
In October 2003, Burg caused a sensation when he published an article in the British newspaper The Guardian
named 'The end of Zionism' calling for a quick withdrawal from the Palestinian Territories
.
Also in 2003, Burg published an article in Yedioth Ahronoth
in which he declared, "Israel, having ceased to care about the children of the Palestinians, should not be surprised when they come washed in hatred and blow themselves up in the centers of Israeli escapism."
In an interview in Haaretz
in June 2007, Burg suggested amending the Law of Return
and stated that "to define the State of Israel as a Jewish state is the key to its end. A Jewish state is explosive. It's dynamite." In response to public criticism of the interview, however, he published a retraction, recommending that Israel be defined not as a "Jewish State" but as a "State of the Jews."
In April 2008, Burg signed a letter of support for the recently created J Street
American pro-peace lobby group. On November 14, 2008, he joined a new left-wing movement intending to support the Meretz-Yachad
party in the 2009 national elections.
In April 2009, Burg participated in the Doha Debates
at Georgetown University
in Washington DC, where he debated for the motion "this house believes that it is time for the US to get tough on Israel" with fellow speaker Michael Scheuer
, former Chief of the CIA Bin Laden Issue Station
. Speakers against the motion were Dore Gold
, President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
and Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz
. Burg and Scheuer won the vote on the debate, with 63% of the audience voting for the motion.
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
; he was formerly a member of the Knesset
Knesset
The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...
, a chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel
Jewish Agency for Israel
The Jewish Agency for Israel , also known as the Sochnut or JAFI, served as the organization in charge of immigration and absorption of Jews from the Diaspora into the state of Israel.-History:...
and a Speaker of the Knesset.
Biography
Burg was born and raised in Jerusalem's RehaviaRehavia
Rehavia is an upscale Jerusalem neighborhood located between the city center and Talbiya.-History:Rehavia was established on a large plot of land purchased in 1921 from the Greek Orthodox Church by the Palestine Land Development Company . The area was known at the time as Ginzaria, a native...
neighborhood. His father was Yosef Burg
Yosef Burg
Yosef Shlomo Burg was an Israeli politician. In 1949, he was elected to the first Knesset, and served in many ministerial positions for the next 40 years. He was one of the founders of the National Religious Party.-Biography:...
, a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
-born Israeli politician and long-time government minister for the National Religious Party
National Religious Party
The National Religious Party ) was a political party in Israel representing the religious Zionist movement. Formed in 1956, at the time of its dissolution in 2008, it was the second oldest surviving party in the country after Agudat Yisrael, and was part of every government coalition until 1992...
. His mother Rivka (née Slonim), was born in Hebron
Hebron
Hebron , is located in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judean Mountains, it lies 930 meters above sea level. It is the largest city in the West Bank and home to around 165,000 Palestinians, and over 500 Jewish settlers concentrated in and around the old quarter...
and survived the Arab massacre in 1929.
In the Israel Defense Forces
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
, Burg served as a lieutenant in the paratroopers brigade. He graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ; ; abbreviated HUJI) is Israel's second-oldest university, after the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The Hebrew University has three campuses in Jerusalem and one in Rehovot. The world's largest Jewish studies library is located on its Edmond J...
with a degree in the social sciences.
Burg is married to Yael and lived in Nataf
Nataf
Nataf is a communal settlement in the Judean Mountains, 12 miles west of Jerusalem, Israel. It is under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council. In 2006, Nataf had a population of 387.-Geography:...
, a rural community on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Burg and his wife have six children. Burg acquired French citizenship in 2004. Burg lives in Nataf now.
Political career
Burg was an activist in left-wing organizations and the Peace Now movement. He was injured in the grenade attack on a Peace Now demonstration in Jerusalem in February 1983, which killed Emil GrunzweigEmil Grunzweig
Emil Grunzweig was an Israeli teacher and peace activist affiliated with the Peace Now movement. He became an icon of the Israeli left after he was killed by a grenade thrown at a peace rally in Jerusalem in 1983.-Biography:Emil Grunzweig was born in Cluj in Transylvania, Romania...
. In 1985, he served as advisor on Diaspora
Diaspora
A diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of...
affairs to Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Israel
The Prime Minister of Israel is the head of the Israeli government and the most powerful political figure in Israel . The prime minister is the country's chief executive. The official residence of the prime minister, Beit Rosh Hamemshala is in Jerusalem...
Shimon Peres
Shimon Peres
GCMG is the ninth President of the State of Israel. Peres served twice as the eighth Prime Minister of Israel and once as Interim Prime Minister, and has been a member of 12 cabinets in a political career spanning over 66 years...
. In 1988, he was elected to the Knesset
Knesset
The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...
as a member of the Alignment
Alignment (political party)
The Alignment was an alliance of the major left-wing parties in Israel between the 1960s and 1990s. It was established in 1965 as an alliance of Mapai and Ahdut HaAvoda but was dissolved three years later when the two parties and Rafi formally merged into the Israeli Labor Party...
.
In 1992, when the Alignment merged with the Labor Party, he was reelected to Knesset. In 1995, he was appointed Chairman of the Jewish Agency
Jewish Agency for Israel
The Jewish Agency for Israel , also known as the Sochnut or JAFI, served as the organization in charge of immigration and absorption of Jews from the Diaspora into the state of Israel.-History:...
and the World Zionist Organization
World Zionist Organization
The World Zionist Organization , or WZO, was founded as the Zionist Organization , or ZO, in 1897 at the First Zionist Congress, held from August 29 to August 31 in Basel, Switzerland...
, and resigned from the Knesset. As head of the Jewish Agency, he worked to recover Jewish property lost during the Holocaust, and in the transfer of ca. half a million predominantly Jewish citizens from the Commonwealth of Independent States
Commonwealth of Independent States
The Commonwealth of Independent States is a regional organization whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics, formed during the breakup of the Soviet Union....
(the former Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
) to Israel.
In 1999, Burg returned to domestic politics, and was elected to the Knesset on Ehud Barak
Ehud Barak
Ehud Barak is an Israeli politician who served as Prime Minister from 1999 until 2001. He was leader of the Labor Party until January 2011 and holds the posts of Minister of Defense and Deputy Prime Minister in Binyamin Netanyahu's government....
's One Israel
One Israel
One Israel was an alliance of the Labor Party, Meimad and Gesher created to run for the 1999 Knesset elections.-Background:One Israel was formed by Labor leader Ehud Barak in the run-up to the 1999 elections with the aim of making Labor appear more centrist and to reduce its secularist and elitist...
list (an alliance of Labor, Meimad
Meimad
Meimad is a left-wing religious Zionist political party in Israel. Founded in 1999, it is based on the ideology of the Meimad movement founded in 1988 by Rabbi Yehuda Amital. At the national level, it was in alliance with the Labour Party, and until the 2006 elections, received 10th spot on the...
and Gesher). Burg was elected Speaker of the Knesset, a position he held until early 2003. In his capacity as speaker of the Knesset he served as interim President of Israel
President of Israel
The President of the State of Israel is the head of state of Israel. The position is largely an apolitical ceremonial figurehead role, with the real executive power lying in the hands of the Prime Minister. The current president is Shimon Peres who took office on 15 July 2007...
for 20 days, from 12 July until 1 August 2000 when the presidency was vacant following Ezer Weizman
Ezer Weizman
' was the seventh President of Israel, first elected in 1993 and re-elected in 1998. Before the presidency, Weizman was commander of the Israeli Air Force and Minister of Defense.-Biography:...
's resignation. Following Barak's defeat in the 2001 election for Prime Minister and his subsequent resignation, Burg ran for the Labor Party leadership, but lost. Nevertheless, he retained his seat in the Knesset in the 2003 elections.
In October 2003, Burg caused a sensation when he published an article in the British newspaper The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
named 'The end of Zionism' calling for a quick withdrawal from the Palestinian Territories
Palestinian territories
The Palestinian territories comprise the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Since the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988, the region is today recognized by three-quarters of the world's countries as the State of Palestine or simply Palestine, although this status is not recognized by the...
.
Also in 2003, Burg published an article in Yedioth Ahronoth
Yedioth Ahronoth
Yedioth Ahronoth is a daily newspaper published in Tel Aviv, Israel. Since the 1970s, it has been the most widely circulated paper in Israel. In a TGI survey comparing the last half of 2009 with the same period in 2008, Yedioth Ahronoth retained the title of most widely read newspaper in Israel...
in which he declared, "Israel, having ceased to care about the children of the Palestinians, should not be surprised when they come washed in hatred and blow themselves up in the centers of Israeli escapism."
Retirement from political life
In 2004, Burg resigned from the Knesset and public life. Since then, he has lectured at international events and served on the board of directors of Vita Pri Hagalil.In an interview in Haaretz
Haaretz
Haaretz is Israel's oldest daily newspaper. It was founded in 1918 and is now published in both Hebrew and English in Berliner format. The English edition is published and sold together with the International Herald Tribune. Both Hebrew and English editions can be read on the Internet...
in June 2007, Burg suggested amending the Law of Return
Law of Return
The Law of Return is Israeli legislation, passed on 5 July 1950, that gives Jews the right of return and settlement in Israel and gain citizenship...
and stated that "to define the State of Israel as a Jewish state is the key to its end. A Jewish state is explosive. It's dynamite." In response to public criticism of the interview, however, he published a retraction, recommending that Israel be defined not as a "Jewish State" but as a "State of the Jews."
In April 2008, Burg signed a letter of support for the recently created J Street
J Street
J Street is a nonprofit liberal advocacy group based in the United States whose stated aim is to promote American leadership to end the Arab-Israeli and Israel-Palestinian conflicts peacefully and diplomatically. It was founded in April 2008....
American pro-peace lobby group. On November 14, 2008, he joined a new left-wing movement intending to support the Meretz-Yachad
Meretz-Yachad
New Movement-Meretz , previously known as Meretz, then Yachad, and then Meretz-Yachad is a left-wing, Zionist, social democratic political party in Israel....
party in the 2009 national elections.
In April 2009, Burg participated in the Doha Debates
Doha Debates
The Doha Debates are a forum for free speech in Qatar and tackle the region's most controversial and topical issues. They are sponsored by Qatar Foundation and their broadcasting rights are sold to BBC World News where they are aired monthly, eight times a year.In addition to BBC World News The...
at Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
in Washington DC, where he debated for the motion "this house believes that it is time for the US to get tough on Israel" with fellow speaker Michael Scheuer
Michael Scheuer
Michael F. Scheuer is a former CIA intelligence officer, American blogger, historian, foreign policy critic, and political analyst. He is currently an adjunct professor at Georgetown University's Center for Peace and Security Studies...
, former Chief of the CIA Bin Laden Issue Station
Bin Laden Issue Station
The Bin Laden Issue Station was a unit of the Central Intelligence Agency dedicated to tracking Osama bin Laden.Soon after its creation the Station developed a new, deadlier vision of bin Laden's activities. In 1999 the CIA inaugurated a grand "Plan" against al-Qaeda, but struggled to find the...
. Speakers against the motion were Dore Gold
Dore Gold
Dore Gold is an Israeli statesman who has served in various diplomatic positions under several Israeli governments. He is the current President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs...
, President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs is a public policy think tank devoted to research and analysis of critical issues facing the Middle East. The center is located in Jerusalem, Israel...
and Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz
Alan Dershowitz
Alan Morton Dershowitz is an American lawyer, jurist, and political commentator. He has spent most of his career at Harvard Law School where in 1967, at the age of 28, he became the youngest full professor of law in its history...
. Burg and Scheuer won the vote on the debate, with 63% of the audience voting for the motion.
Published works
- Brit Am: A Covenant of the People, Proposed Policy Guidelines for the National Institutions of the Jewish People, (1995), Jewish Agency for Israel
- God is Back (2006) (Hebrew)
- Defeating Hitler (2007) Yedioth Ahronoth (Hebrew)
- The Holocaust Is Over: We Must Rise From its Ashes (2008) MacMillan.com,
External links
- 'Leaving the Zionist ghetto' by Ari Shavit Haaretz interview, 24 June 2007
- Interview with Donald Macintyre Independent Newspaper. London 1 November 2008
- Video (and audio) of Burg discussing the Holocaust (among other things) with Gershom GorenbergGershom GorenbergGershom Gorenberg is an American-born Israeli historian, journalist and blogger, specializing in Middle Eastern politics and the interaction of religion and politics. He is currently a senior correspondent for The American Prospect, a monthly American political magazine...
on Bloggingheads.tvBloggingheads.tvBloggingheads.tv is a political, world events, philosophy, and science video blog discussion site in which the participants take part in an active back and forth conversation via webcam which is then broadcast online to viewers... - 12 February 2008 Video (or audio) of Interview with Burg discussing his new book "The Holocaust Is Over: We Must Rise From Its Ashes" with Amy GoodmanAmy GoodmanAmy Goodman is an American progressive broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter and author. Goodman is the host of Democracy Now!, an independent global news program broadcast daily on radio, television and the internet.-Early life:Goodman was born in Bay Shore, New York...
and Juan GonzalezJuan GonzálezJuan Alberto González Vázquez , nicknamed "Juan Gone", "Juando", and "Igor", is a former Major League Baseball right fielder. Juan González developed into one of the most prolific RBI men to anchor a lineup since World War Two...
on Democracy Now - Avraham Burg: "The Holocaust Is Over" - Caught in a National Trauma, Ulrich von Schwerin, © Qantara.de 2009. Translated from the German by Aingeal Flanagan