Haim "Jumas" Oron 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 and former
Minister of AgricultureThe Agriculture Minister of Israel is the political head of the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture and a relatively minor position in the Israeli cabinet. Since 1992 the full title of the position has been the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development , the Development Ministry having been...
. He is currently head of the political party New Movement-Meretz, for whom he serves as a member of the
KnessetThe Knesset is the legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Operation of the Knesset:...
.
Oron was born in
Giv'atayimGiv'atayim is a city in Israel east of Tel Aviv. It is part of the metropolitan area known as Gush Dan. Givatayim was established in 1922 by pioneers of the Second Aliyah. It has a population of 49,600....
and grew up in
Ramat GanRamat Gan is a city in the Tel Aviv district of Israel, located east of Tel Aviv. It is home to one of the world's major diamond exchanges and Israel's tallest building, the Moshe Aviv Tower. Ramat Gan was established in 1921 as a moshava, a communal farming settlement. At the end of 2007, the...
. His parents emigrated from Poland before World War II. His father was a textile worker and his mother a housewife. His nickname as a boy was "Jamus" (water buffalo) and later, "Jumas".
Oron served in the airborne
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...
.
Haim "Jumas" Oron 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 and former
Minister of AgricultureThe Agriculture Minister of Israel is the political head of the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture and a relatively minor position in the Israeli cabinet. Since 1992 the full title of the position has been the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development , the Development Ministry having been...
. He is currently head of the political party New Movement-Meretz, for whom he serves as a member of the
KnessetThe Knesset is the legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Operation of the Knesset:...
.
Biography
Oron was born in
Giv'atayimGiv'atayim is a city in Israel east of Tel Aviv. It is part of the metropolitan area known as Gush Dan. Givatayim was established in 1922 by pioneers of the Second Aliyah. It has a population of 49,600....
and grew up in
Ramat GanRamat Gan is a city in the Tel Aviv district of Israel, located east of Tel Aviv. It is home to one of the world's major diamond exchanges and Israel's tallest building, the Moshe Aviv Tower. Ramat Gan was established in 1921 as a moshava, a communal farming settlement. At the end of 2007, the...
. His parents emigrated from Poland before World War II. His father was a textile worker and his mother a housewife. His nickname as a boy was "Jamus" (water buffalo) and later, "Jumas".
Oron served in the airborne
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...
. After the army, he and his wife Nili joined kibbutz
LahavLahav is a kibbutz in southern Israel. Located around 20 km north of Beersheba and covering 33,000 dunams, it falls under the jurisdiction of Bnei Shimon Regional Council. In 2006, it had a population of 384....
, where he taught in the high school and worked in various branches of the kibbutz economy (poultry, field crops, sausage factory, plastics factory). He was a member of the kibbutz committee and served as executive secretary. In 1968, he became secretary of the
Hashomer HatzairHashomer Hatzair is a Socialist-Zionist youth movement founded in 1913 in Galicia, Austria-Hungary, and was also the name of the group's political party in the Yishuv in the pre-1948 British Mandate of Palestine.-Early formation:Hashomer Hatzair came into being as a result of...
movement. He was national secretary of Kibbutz Artzi twice.
Oron had four children - Irit, Assaf, Yaniv and Oded. Yaniv died in a tractor accident at the age of 4. Oron and his wife continue to live on the kibbutz, and his salary as a Knesset member goes into the collective treasury.
Political career
Oron was one of the founders of
Peace NowPeace Now is a non-governmental organization in Israel with the agenda of "swaying popular opinion and convincing the Israeli government of the need and possibility for achieving a just peace and a historic conciliation with the Palestinian people and neighboring Arab countries; this in exchange...
(1978). In 1988, he was voted to the Knesset for
MapamMapam was a political party in Israel and is one of the ancestors of the modern-day Meretz party.-History:...
which in 1992 merged with Ratz and
ShinuiShinui is a Zionist, secular and anti-clerical free market liberal party and political movement in Israel. The party twice became the third largest in the Knesset, but both occasions were followed by a split and collapse; in 1977 the party won 15 seats as part of the Democratic Movement for...
as Meretz (which later became
Meretz-YachadThe New Movement-Meretz , previously known as Meretz, then Yachad, and then Meretz-Yachad is a left-wing, Zionist, social democratic political party in Israel, which emphasizes the strive for peace, human rights, religious freedom and green politics.-History:Meretz was formed in 1992 prior to the...
). In the thirteenth Knesset, he was chairman of the Ethics Committee. In the fourteenth Knesset, he became the leader of Meretz.
He joined
Haim RamonHaim Ramon is an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Kadima and as both Vice Prime Minister and Minister in the Prime Minister's Office with responsibility for state policy.-Biography:...
in his bid for the
HistadrutThe Histadrut or HaHistadrut HaKlalit shel HaOvdim B'Eretz Yisrael is the Israeli trade union congress....
leadership, and after Ramon's victory, during 1995-1996, served as its treasurer. In 1999, Oron was appointed Minister of Agriculture in
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....
's government. In 2000, he resigned from the Knesset, but returned after the 2006 elections.
After
Yossi BeilinDr. Yosef "Yossi" Beilin is a left-wing Israeli politician and a former Knesset member, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister and Justice Minister, representing both the Labor Party and Meretz-Yachad, of which he served as chairman between 2003 and 2006...
resigned as Meretz leader, Oron was elected as party chairman. He headed the party's joint list (New Movement-Meretz) 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...
on February 10, but saw the party reduced to just three seats. On February 14, 300 Meretz members signed a petition urging Oron to resign, while a second petition signed by 400 other party members, including
Shulamit AloniShulamit Aloni is an Israeli politician and left-wing activist. She is a prominent member of the Israeli peace camp, founded the Ratz party and was leader of the Meretz party and served as Minister of Education from 1992 to 1993....
and
Yossi BeilinDr. Yosef "Yossi" Beilin is a left-wing Israeli politician and a former Knesset member, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister and Justice Minister, representing both the Labor Party and Meretz-Yachad, of which he served as chairman between 2003 and 2006...
, called for him to stay. The next day, Oron said he decided not to resign, saying: "For me, responsibility means working toward the rehabilitation of Meretz".
Activism
Oron has embarked on several projects to improve the welfare of the
BedouinThe Bedouin, , are a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group found throughout most of the desert belt extending from the Atlantic coast of the Sahara via the Western Desert, Sinai, and Negev to the Arabian Desert...
population of the
NegevThe Negev is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The indigenous Bedouin inhabitants of the region refer to the desert as al-Naqab . The origin of the word Negev is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'...
, among them the establishment of a wastewater purification plant, a health clinic and nursery schools. He is a close friend of
Marwan BarghoutiMarwan Bin Khatib Barghouti is a Palestinian politician and militant leader who gained political authority during the First and Second Intifada. He was arrested and detained by Israel in 2002 on the charges of murder of Israeli civilians and attacks on Israeli soldiers...
, now serving five life terms in an Israeli jail for terrorist activities.
Qadura FaresQadura Fares is a Palestinian Authority minister. He is a close friend, aide and adviser to senior Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, and a member of the Legislative Council, the parliament of the Palestinian Authority...
, a senior
FatahNot to be confused with Fatah Revolutionary Council also known as Abu Nidal OrganizationFataḥ is a major Palestinian political party and the largest faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization , a multi-party confederation. In Palestinian politics it is on the center-left of the spectrum...
official, describes Oron as a "loyal friend" and a "loyal Zionist," but also attentive to the problems of the Palestinians.
External links