Ran Cohen
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Ran Cohen (in Hebrew רן כהן) (born June 20, 1937) is an Israeli politician and Knesset member of the Meretz-Yachad party. He is a resident of Mevaseret Zion and married with four children.
Born in Baghdad, Iraq, Cohen was 11-years-old when he immigrated to Israel through Iran. He grew in Kibbutz Gan Shmuel, where he absorbed Socialist and Zionist ideologies. During his military service he rose to the rank of Colonel (Aluf Mishne). After the military he obtained a B.A. in philosophy and Economics at Tel Aviv University.
[edit] Political Career
In 1984 he was first elected to the Knesset as a member of Ratz party (headed by Shulamit Aloni) after he headed the Shelli peace movement (he was not one of Shelli's MKs in the 1981 Knesset). Since then he was a Knesset mermber in all assemblies (the current is the 17th assembly of the Knesset הכנסת ה-17).
Since 1992, he has been a member of Meretz, a dovish left wing party which resulted from the merger of Mapam, Ratz and Shinui. He was the Minister of Housing in Itzhak Rabin's government and Minister of Commerce and Industry in Ehud Barak's government. He headed several Knesset committees, including the Security and Foreign Affairs committee.
Cohen is most identified with "Law of Public Housing", which allowed residents of houses supplied by the state to assume ownership on the house. He also managed to pass a law regulating minimum wages.
Cohen's political focus is on social-economic issues rather than foreign affairs and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
After Meretz merged with Yossi Beilin's Shachar movement and renamed itself Yachad in 2004, Ran Cohen ran for the chairmainship of the new party, but lost to Beilin. Supporters of Ran Cohen blamed his defeat on anti-Mizrahi racism within Yachad and pointed out that he was the only non-Ashkenazi to reach a senior position in the party.
