Yosef Tamir
Encyclopedia
Yosef Tamir was an Israel
i journalist
, politician
and lawyer
.
in the Russian Empire
(now part of Ukraine
) and immigrated
to Mandate Palestine in 1924. He passed through elementary and high school in Petah Tikva
and graduated from the Law and Economics School at Tel Aviv University
.
Between 1935 and 1945 he worked as a journalist for Haaretz
, the Palestine Post
, Yedioth Ahronoth
, Maariv
and HaBoker
, and was a military correspondent during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
. He was a member of the Maccabi Sports Movement, and won three medals in the Maccabiah Games
.
party, and became its general secretary. Between 1965 and 1969 he was a member of the Tel Aviv
directorate as head of the Liberal Party
faction (a merger of the General Zionists and the Progressive Party
). In the 1965 elections
Tamir was also elected to the Knesset
as member of Gahal
, an alliance of the Liberal Party and Herut
. Yosef retained his seat in the 1969 election
, and again in the 1973 election
, before which Gahal had become Likud
.
After being elected to the Knesset for Likud again in the 1977 election
, Tamir broke away from the party and joined the newly-formed Shinui
, a centrist liberal party. However, he soon left his new party and spent the rest of the Knesset session as an independent MK. He was not returned to the Knesset in the 1981 elections
.
He also launched the environmental journal Green Blue and White.
Tamir represented the Knesset
at the First United Nations
Conference on the Environment of Man in Stockholm in 1972, and was the Likud representative in the Knesset delegation that visited the United States
Congress in 1975 and the German Bundestag
in 1977.
Tamir won several prizes for his environmental activism, including the United Nations Environmental Prize and a Knesset Prize for "Achievements in the Area of Environmental Quality".
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
and lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
.
Background
Tamir was born in BerdychivBerdychiv
Berdychiv is a historic city in the Zhytomyr Oblast of northern Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of the Berdychiv Raion , the city itself is of direct oblast subordinance, and is located south of the oblast capital, Zhytomyr, at around .The current estimated population is around...
in the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
(now part of Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
) and immigrated
Aliyah
Aliyah is the immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel . It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology. The opposite action, emigration from Israel, is referred to as yerida . The return to the Holy Land has been a Jewish aspiration since the Babylonian exile...
to Mandate Palestine in 1924. He passed through elementary and high school in Petah Tikva
Petah Tikva
Petah Tikva known as Em HaMoshavot , is a city in the Center District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv.According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, at the end of 2009, the city's population stood at 209,600. The population density is approximately...
and graduated from the Law and Economics School at Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...
.
Between 1935 and 1945 he worked as a journalist for 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...
, the Palestine Post
The Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post is an Israeli daily English-language broadsheet newspaper, founded on December 1, 1932 by Gershon Agron as The Palestine Post. The daily readership numbers do not approach those of the major Hebrew newspapers....
, 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...
, Maariv
Maariv
Maariv is a Hebrew language daily newspaper published in Israel. It is second in sales after Yedioth Ahronoth and third in readership after Yedioth Ahronoth and Israel HaYom. In a TGI survey comparing the last half of 2009 with the same period in 2008, Maariv saw its market share fall slightly...
and HaBoker
HaBoker
HaBoker was a Hebrew-language daily newspaper in Mandate Palestine and Israel associated with the General Zionists.The paper was established in 1935 by the right-wing of the General Zionists, with the first edition published on 11 October that year...
, and was a military correspondent during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
1948 Arab-Israeli War
The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known to Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation The war commenced after the termination of the British Mandate for Palestine and the creation of an independent Israel at midnight on 14 May 1948 when, following a period of civil war, Arab armies invaded...
. He was a member of the Maccabi Sports Movement, and won three medals in the Maccabiah Games
Maccabiah Games
The Maccabiah is an international Jewish athletic event similar to the Olympics held in Israel every four years under the auspices of the Maccabi Federation, affiliated with the Maccabi World Union. The Maccabiah Games is the third largest international sports competition in the world...
.
Political career
Tamir joined the General ZionistsGeneral Zionists
The General Zionists were centrists within the Zionist movement and a political party in Israel. Their political arm is an ancestor of the modern-day Likud.-History:...
party, and became its general secretary. Between 1965 and 1969 he was a member of the Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
directorate as head of the Liberal Party
Liberal Party (Israel)
The Israeli Liberal Party was a political party in Israel and is one of the ancestors of the modern-day Likud.-History:The Liberal Party was formed on 8 May 1961, towards the end of the fourth Knesset, by a merger of the General Zionists and the Progressive Party, with the new party having 14...
faction (a merger of the General Zionists and the Progressive Party
Progressive Party (Israel)
The Progressive Party was a political party in Israel.-History:The Progressive Party was a liberal party, most of whose founders came from the ranks of the New Aliyah Party and HaOved HaTzioni, which had been active prior to independence...
). In the 1965 elections
Israeli legislative election, 1965
Elections for the sixth Knesset were held in Israel on 1 November 1965. Voter turnout was 85.9%.-Background:Prior to the elections, two major alliances were formed; Mapai and Ahdut HaAvoda united to form the Alignment, whilst Herut and the Liberal Party had formed the Gahal alliance towards the end...
Tamir was also 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 member of Gahal
Gahal
Gahal , lit. Herut-Liberals Bloc) was the major right-wing political faction in Israel led by Menachem Begin from its founding in 1965 until it merged into Likud in 1973.-Background:...
, an alliance of the Liberal Party and Herut
Herut
Herut was the major right-wing political party in Israel from the 1940s until its formal merger into Likud in 1988, and an adherent of Revisionist Zionism.-History:...
. Yosef retained his seat in the 1969 election
Israeli legislative election, 1969
Elections for the seventh Knesset were held in Israel on 28 October 1969. Voter turnout was 81.7%.-Results:¹ Meir Avizohar defected from the National List to the Alignment² Avner Shaki left the National Religious Party and remained a single MK...
, and again in the 1973 election
Israeli legislative election, 1973
The Elections for the eighth Knesset were held on 31 December 1973. Voter turnout was 78.6%.-Results:1 Aryeh Eliav left the Alignment and merged with Ratz to form Ya'ad - Civil Rights Movement...
, before which Gahal had become Likud
Likud
Likud 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...
.
After being elected to the Knesset for Likud again in the 1977 election
Israeli legislative election, 1977
The Elections for the ninth Knesset were held on 17 May 1977. For the first time in Israeli political history, the right-wing, led by Likud, won the election, ending almost 30 years of rule by the left-wing Alignment and its predecessor, Mapai...
, Tamir broke away from the party and joined the newly-formed Shinui
Shinui
Shinui 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...
, a centrist liberal party. However, he soon left his new party and spent the rest of the Knesset session as an independent MK. He was not returned to the Knesset in the 1981 elections
Israeli legislative election, 1981
Elections for the tenth Knesset were held in Israel on 30 June 1981. Despite last minute polls suggesting a victory for Shimon Peres's Alignment, Menachem Begin's Likud won by just one seat...
.
Environmental activism
During his lifetime Tamir founded several environmental organisations:- Council for a Beautiful Israel (1968)
- Non-factional Committee for Ecology (1970)
- Life and Environment Organization (1975)
- Israel Economic Forum on the Environment (1991)
He also launched the environmental journal Green Blue and White.
Tamir represented 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...
at the First United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
Conference on the Environment of Man in Stockholm in 1972, and was the Likud representative in the Knesset delegation that visited the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Congress in 1975 and the German Bundestag
Bundestag
The Bundestag is a federal legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag is established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier...
in 1977.
Tamir won several prizes for his environmental activism, including the United Nations Environmental Prize and a Knesset Prize for "Achievements in the Area of Environmental Quality".