Gideon Ezra is an
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
i politician, member of the
KnessetThe Knesset is the legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Operation of the Knesset:...
for
KadimaKadima was founded as a centrist political party in Israel by moderates from Likud soon joined by like-minded Labor politicians. It became the largest party in the Knesset after the 2006 elections, winning 29 of the 120 seats...
and a former
Minister of Environmental ProtectionThe Environmental Protection Minister of Israel is the political head of the Israeli Ministry of Environment and a relatively minor position in the Israeli cabinet. The post was created on 22 December 1988, and until May 2006 was known as the Minister of the Environment...
.
Ezra was born in
JerusalemJerusalem is the capital of Israel and its largest city in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if disputed East Jerusalem is included...
and served in the Israeli Defense Force between 1955 and 1958 in the
NahalNahal is an Israel Defense Forces infantry brigade. Historically, it refers to a program that combines military service and establishment of new agricultural settlements, often in outlying areas...
. He studied Geography and Political Science at the
University of HaifaThe University of Haifa is a university in Haifa, Israel.About 16,500 undergraduate and graduate students study in the university a wide variety of topics, specializing in social sciences, humanities, law and education. The University is broadly divided into six Faculties: Humanities, Social...
before starting work with the Shin Bet in 1962.
After retiring from Shin Bet in 1995, he worked as an advisor to then Minister of Internal Security
Moshe ShahalMoshe Shahal is a former Israeli politician.-Biography:Born in Baghdad in Iraq, Shahal made aliyah in 1950. He studied economics and Political Science at the University of Haifa, before graduating with a law degree from Tel Aviv University.He began his political career when elected to the Haifa...
.
Ezra was elected to the Knesset in the
1996 electionsElections for the fourteenth Knesset were held in Israel alongside the first ever election for Prime Minister on 29 May, 1996. Voter turnout was 79.3%.- Results :1 One Nation broke away from Labour....
on the
LikudLikud is the major center-right political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin in an alliance with several right-wing and liberal parties. Likud's victory in the 1977 elections was a major turning point in the country's political history, marking the first time the left had...
list, and retained his seat in the 1999 and 2003 elections.
Gideon Ezra is an
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
i politician, member of the
KnessetThe Knesset is the legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Operation of the Knesset:...
for
KadimaKadima was founded as a centrist political party in Israel by moderates from Likud soon joined by like-minded Labor politicians. It became the largest party in the Knesset after the 2006 elections, winning 29 of the 120 seats...
and a former
Minister of Environmental ProtectionThe Environmental Protection Minister of Israel is the political head of the Israeli Ministry of Environment and a relatively minor position in the Israeli cabinet. The post was created on 22 December 1988, and until May 2006 was known as the Minister of the Environment...
.
Biography
Ezra was born in
JerusalemJerusalem is the capital of Israel and its largest city in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if disputed East Jerusalem is included...
and served in the Israeli Defense Force between 1955 and 1958 in the
NahalNahal is an Israel Defense Forces infantry brigade. Historically, it refers to a program that combines military service and establishment of new agricultural settlements, often in outlying areas...
. He studied Geography and Political Science at the
University of HaifaThe University of Haifa is a university in Haifa, Israel.About 16,500 undergraduate and graduate students study in the university a wide variety of topics, specializing in social sciences, humanities, law and education. The University is broadly divided into six Faculties: Humanities, Social...
before starting work with the Shin Bet in 1962.
After retiring from Shin Bet in 1995, he worked as an advisor to then Minister of Internal Security
Moshe ShahalMoshe Shahal is a former Israeli politician.-Biography:Born in Baghdad in Iraq, Shahal made aliyah in 1950. He studied economics and Political Science at the University of Haifa, before graduating with a law degree from Tel Aviv University.He began his political career when elected to the Haifa...
.
Ezra was elected to the Knesset in the
1996 electionsElections for the fourteenth Knesset were held in Israel alongside the first ever election for Prime Minister on 29 May, 1996. Voter turnout was 79.3%.- Results :1 One Nation broke away from Labour....
on the
LikudLikud is the major center-right political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin in an alliance with several right-wing and liberal parties. Likud's victory in the 1977 elections was a major turning point in the country's political history, marking the first time the left had...
list, and retained his seat in the 1999 and 2003 elections. After
Ariel Sharon' is an Israeli general and statesman, former Israeli Prime Minister...
beat
Ehud BarakEhud Barak is an Israeli politician, former Prime Minister, and current Minister of Defense, deputy prime minister and leader of Israel's Labor Party....
in the 2001 election for Prime Minister, Ezra was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Security.
In August 2002 Ezra opined about the approaching American invasion of Iraq: "The more aggressive the attack is, the more it will help Israel against the Palestinians." Military action against Iraq would "undoubtedly deal a psychological blow" to the Palestinians, added the Deputy Minister.
He was given his first full ministerial position after the 2003 elections when appointed Minister in the Ministry of the Prime Minister's Office. When
Binyamin ElonRabbi Binyamin "Benny" Elon is an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Moledet and the National Union between 1996 and 2009. A ninth-generation Jerusalemite, Elon has lived in Beit El, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank for the last twenty years...
was sacked as
Minister of TourismThe Tourism Minister of Israel is the political head of the Israeli Ministry of Tourism and a relatively minor position in the Israeli cabinet...
in July 2004, Ezra replaced him, initially as Acting Minister (the position was made permanent at the end of August). From September 2004 he also held the position of Acting
Minister of Internal SecurityThe Internal Security Minister of Israel is the political head of the Israeli Ministry of Internal Security, which oversees Israel Police and the Israel Prison Service, and a member of the Israeli cabinet. Until 1995 the position was known as Minister of Police...
after
Tzachi HanegbiTzachi Hanegbi is an Israeli politician and member of the Knesset for Kadima. A former Justice Minister, in 2006 he was indicted for making political appointments to civil service posts during his time as Environment Minister, despite his claims that it was normal practice.-Biography:Hanegbi was...
resigned in the face of corruption allegations. This ministerial post was also made permanent in November, and Ezra oversaw the evacuation of the
AmonaAmona is a communal settlement in the central West Bank, on a hill overlooking Ofra. Located within the municipal boundaries of the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council, the village was founded in 1997 on a barren hilltop and inhabited by young people from Ofra.By late 2005 there were some thirty...
settlement in February 2006. In November 2005 he was attacked during a rally in
SderotSderot is a western Negev city in the Southern District of Israel. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics , at the end of 2006 the city had a total population of 19,300. The city has been an ongoing target of Qassam rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip...
against
Israel's unilateral disengagement planIsrael's unilateral disengagement plan , also known as the "Disengagement plan", "Gaza expulsion plan", and "Hitnatkut") was a proposal by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, adopted by the government on June 6, 2004 and enacted in August 2005, to evict...
over his support for it.
In January 2005 he was replaced as Tourism Minister by
Avraham HirschsonAvraham Hirchson is an Israeli politician. He served as a member of the Knesset for Likud and Kadima between 1981 and 1984, and again from 1992 until 2009. He also held the posts of Minister of Communications, Minister of Finance and Minister of Tourism...
. When Sharon founded
KadimaKadima was founded as a centrist political party in Israel by moderates from Likud soon joined by like-minded Labor politicians. It became the largest party in the Knesset after the 2006 elections, winning 29 of the 120 seats...
in late 2005, Ezra joined him, picking up the Environment Ministry portfolio from Labor's
Shalom SimhonShalom Simhon is an Israeli politician and member of the Knesset for the Labor Party. He currently serves as the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development in the Israeli cabinet.-Biography:...
.
After the 2006 elections he was appointed Minister of Environmental Protection by new PM
Ehud OlmertEhud Olmert is an Israeli political figure, and former Prime Minister of Israel having served from 2006 to 2009. Olmert was the mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003. In 2003 he was elected to the Knesset and became a minister and Acting Prime Minister in the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon...
. In April 2007 he announced that he would oppose plans to build a solar energy plant near
DimonaDimona is an Israeli city in the Negev desert, to the south of Beersheba and west of the Dead Sea above the Arava valley in the Southern District of Israel. Its population at the end of 2007 was 33,600.-Formation:...
on the basis that it would affect a nature reserve. He has also overseen the expansion of
container deposit legislationContainer deposit legislation are laws passed by city, state, provincial, or national governments that require that a deposit on carbonated, milk, water or alcoholic beverage containers be collected when the beverage is sold...
to cover 1.5 litre bottles.
Ezra retained his seat again in the
2009 electionsElections for the 18th Knesset were held in Israel on 10 February 2009. These elections became necessary due to the resignation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as leader of the Kadima party, and the failure of his successor, Tzipi Livni, to form a coalition government...
, having been placed twelfth on the Kadima list. However, he lost his place in the cabinet as the Likud-led coalition formed the government
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