Aryeh Eliav

MKs

Date of birth = 21 November 1921
Year of Aliyah = 1924
Date of death =
Knesset(s) = 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 12th
Party = Alignment
Former parties = Ya'ad – Civil Rights Movement,
Independent Socialist Faction,
Left Camp of Israel
Gov't roles =

Aryeh Lova Eliav ( _he. אריה לובה אליאב, born Aryeh Lipschitz on 21 November 1921) is an Israeli politician and former member of the Knesset for several left-wing parties.

Background

Born in Moscow in 1921, Eliav's family moved to Mandate Palestine in 1924. He studied history and sociology, gaining a BA from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and worked as a teacher and sociologist.

As a teenager, he joined the Haganah in 1936 before joining the British Army in 1940, serving in an artillery unit. Upon his return home in 1945 he helped the Aliyah Bet movement and later worked as an aide to Levi Eshkol on the topics of immigration, absorption and settlement. Between 1955 and 1957 he oversaw the foundation of several settlements in the Lakhish Regional Council area. During the Suez Crisis he supervised Operation Tushia, which rescued the Jews of Port Said.

In 1958 he returned to Moscow, where he worked as the first secretary in the Israeli embassy, a position he held until 1960.

Political career

He was first elected to the Knesset in the 1965 on the Alignment's list, and was appointed Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry. During the Knesset term he became Deputy Minister of Immigrant Absorption.

He retained his seat in the 1969 election, but was not given a ministerial position. However, he did become general secretary of the Labour Party faction until 1971. After again retaining his seat in the 1973, he left the party, first sitting as an independent MK, before joining with the Ratz faction to form Ya'ad – Civil Rights Movement. However, the new party split up soon after its foundation, with Eliav founding a new party, the Social-Democratic Faction together with Marcia Freedman. The new party later changed its name to "Independent Socialist Faction".

In the run up to the 1977 elections, he joined the Left Camp of Israel. The new party won only two seats, but a rotation agreement saw the terms shared by five people; Eliav served the first term, before resigning from the Knesset in January 1979 to make way for Uri Avnery. In 1984 he established a personal faction but failed to be re-elected by a small margin. In 1987 he returned to the Labor Party.In 1987 he led a Jewish Agency project initiated by him to found Nitzana, a new educational community, in the Negev desert. He serves as the Head of Nitzana.

Eliav returned to the Knesset after the 1988 elections. He served one last Knesset term and in 1992 he decided not to run for a new term.

Achievements

Eliav served as a visiting professor in several American academic institutes. One should mention his two years term at Harvard University (1979-1980)and his two annual terms at Trinity College (Hartford, Connecticut)in the 90's. He is one of the most decorated citizens of Israel, a Doctor of Honour of all important academic institutes of Israel and Israel Prize (1988) and Ben-Gurion Prize (2003) laureate .

Publications

During and after his time in the Knesset, Eliav published fifteen books. Some of them are:
*Between Hammer and Sickle (1965)
*The Voyage of the Ulua (1967)
*New targets for Israel (1969)
*The Short Cut (1970)
*Land of the Hart (1972)
*Shalom: Peace in Jewish Tradition (1977)
*Autobiography: Rings of Dawn (1984)
*New Heart, New Spirit: Biblical Humanism for Modern Israel (1986)
*On Both Sides of the New-Comers' Camp (2006) - with co-author Y. Alfi

External links

* [http://www.knesset.gov.il/mk/eng/mk_eng.asp?mk_individual_id_t=255 Aryeh Eliav on the Knesset website (in English)]