Yossi Sarid

1940 -

Israeli political leader and government minister.

Yossi Sarid, the son of a prominent educator, was born in Palestine. After a brief career as a columnist for Haaretz, Sarid became active in the Labor Party. He was close to Pinhas Sapir, the powerful, dovish minister of finance, and was responsible for the party's information drives in four election campaigns. In 1974, after the Arab - Israel War the previous year (also known as the October War), Sarid was elected to the Knesset, and has remained a member ever since. In 1982 Sarid was the only Labor member of the Knesset who opposed Israel's invasion of Lebanon. In 1984, in protest of the formation of the Peres-Shamir Unity Government, Sarid resigned from the party and joined Shulamit Aloni's Movement for Civil Rights and Peace (RATZ). In 1988 Sarid was one of the founders of Meretz, the left-wing party espousing social welfare policies and peace with the Palestinians, based on the principle of "two states for two nations." In 1992 Meretz joined the coalition government, formed by Yitzhak Rabin. Sarid was appointed minister of the environment. He strongly supported the Oslo Accord and was a member of the team of three senior ministers who negotiated its details.

In 1996 Sarid replaced Aloni as chairman of the party. When Ehud Barak formed his coalition government in 1999, Meretz joined once more and Sarid was appointed minister of education. He initiated many reforms in Israel's educational system, but could not complete them; Meretz had to quit the coalition to avoid its breakup during the dramatic negotiations with the Palestinian Authority on the "Final Status" arrangements, which eventually collapsed at the July 2000 Camp David Conference. In the 2002 elections, Meretz suffered the severe drawback of losing four of their ten Knesset members. Sarid took responsibility for the defeat and resigned from his position as head of the party, but remained in the Knesset as a veteran member of its Foreign and Security Committee. Sarid published hundreds of articles and two poetry volumes.

— BRYAN DAVES
UPDATED BY MORDECHAI BAR-ON

Yossi Sarid
Date of birth	24 October 1940 (1940-10-24) (age 69)
Place of birth	Rehovot, Mandate Palestine
Knesset(s)	8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
Party	Meretz (1992-2006)
Former parties	Alignment (1973-1984) Ratz (1984-1992)
Gov't roles (current in bold)	Minister of Education Minister of the Environment

Yossi Sarid (Hebrew: יוסי שריד‎, born 24 October 1940) is a left-wing Israeli news commentator and former politician. He served as a member of the Knesset for the Alignment, Ratz and Meretz between 1974 and 2006. A former Minister of Education and Minister of the Environment, he led Meretz between 1996 and 2003.

Biography

Born in Rehovot, Sarid served in the Artillery Corps and as a Military Correspondent during his national service in the IDF. He went on to work as a media aide to Prime Minister Levi Eshkol.

He was first elected to the Knesset in 1973 on the Alignment list. He was re-elected in 1977, 1981 and 1984. After the Alignment agreed to join a national unity government with Likud in 1984, Sarid left the party on 22 October to join Shulamit Aloni's Ratz.^[1] He was re-elected on the Ratz list in 1988.

In 1992, Ratz merged with Shinui and Mapam to form Meretz. The new party won 12 seats in the elections that year and joined Yitzhak Rabin's coalition. Sarid was appointed Minister of the Environment, a position he kept when Shimon Peres formed a new government after Rabin's assassination in 1995.

In 1996 Sarid replaced Aloni as Meretz leader. Although the Labor Party won the most seats in elections that year, Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu won the special election for Prime Minister and formed a right-wing government.

In the 1999 elections Meretz won 10 seats. Although Sarid had vowed not to join a coalition that included the ultra-orthodox Shas, Ehud Barak persuaded Sarid to join the government, making him Minister of Education. Sarid explained the breaking of his vow in the need to promote the peace process. However, in 2000 Sarid resigned from the government and Meretz quit the coalition after failing to agree on authority to be given for Shas deputy minister of education.

In the 2003 elections Meretz was reduced to 10 seats, after which Sarid resigned as party leader, to be replaced by Yossi Beilin. He remained a member of the Knesset until the 2006 elections, when Meretz was reduced to 5 seats, after which he retired from politics, a plan he had announced the previous year.^[2]

Sarid now writes a weekly column for Haaretz. He holds an MA in political science from New School for Social Research in New York. He lives in Margaliyot in the Upper Galilee and is married to Dorit, with whom he has three children.

References

1. ^ Mergers and Splits Among Parliamentary Groups Knesset website
2. ^ Veteran Meretz MK Yossi Sarid says he will retire from politics Haaretz, 1 December 2005

External links

• Yossi Sarid Knesset website
• Yossi Sarid's official lecturer page

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v • d • e Environmental Protection Ministers of Israel Milo (1988-90) · Edri (1988-90) · Shamir (1990-92) · Namir (1992) · Sarid (1992-96) · Eitan (1996-99) · Itzik (1999-2001) · Hanegbi (2001-03) · Naot (2003-04) · Shalgi (2004) · Simhon (2005) · Ezra (2006-09) · Erdan (2009-)

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