Elie Yossef

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Elie Yossef with Magshimey Herut activists at a political demonstration in Jerusalem

Elie Yossef (also Eli Joseph, Hebrew: אֵלִי יוֹסֵף‎) is a London-born Israeli educator and political activist.

Eli Yossef grew up in London and attended the Hasmonean High School where he established Betar England in 1973.^{[citation needed]} In 1975, Yossef came on Aliya to Israel and served in the Golani and Paratroopers brigades of the Israel Defense Forces. After completing his military service, Yossef studied at Machon Meir and Hebrew University. In 1988, Yossef founded a Youth Aliyah (Aliyat haNoar) high school for new immigrants from France.^{[citation needed]}In 1997, he organized a military preparatory program for Jewish students from abroad interested in volunteering in Israel's army.^[1] Yossef is a teacher to the Magshimey Herut movement's chapter in Jerusalem.

Yossef is a critic of the Israeli government and a frequent protester outside the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem. One of his major causes is freeing Jonathan Pollard.^[2] In January 2000, Yossef conducted a hunger strike on Pollard's behalf outside of Israel's Parliament. He argued that anyone who passes classified information to the State of Israel regarding enemy intentions to harm Israel is morally innocent even if technically guilty by American law.^[3] In 2002 Yossef traveled to numerous Israeli high-schools and spoke of Pollard's plight as a moral national issue. Working with former Prisoners of Zion Natan Sharansky and Rabbi Yosef Mendelevitch, Yossef has led the Israeli campaign to free Pollard^[4] ^[5] until a falling out with Pollard's wife Esther in late 2004.

Yossef has urged the Israeli government to establish what happened to Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who saved countless Jews from the Holocaust during World War II but was arrested following the war by Soviet agents and disappeared.^[6]

Yossef ran for Knesset in the 2006 elections on the Herut (Freedom) list.^[7] During the election campaign, Yossef had disagreements with other members over what Herut's main focus should be. The party failed to win the minimum number of votes necessary to enter Knesset.

Following the violent confrontation at Amona between the Israeli police and settler teenagers in early 2006, Yossef led Magshimey Herut Yisrael activists on a three week hunger strike vigil protesting violence between Jews. The activists displayed banners and handed out flyers calling on the Israeli government and settler leadership to seek out ways to avoid future bloodshed. ^[8]

Yossef has called on the government of Israel to cut diplomatic ties to Russia due to Russia's involvement in Iran's nuclear development program.^[9] ^[10] Yossef told Israel National Radio's Yishai Fleisher that "the Jewish People must find the moral courage to stand up to super-powers in such situations."^[11]

Yossef actively opposed the Camp David Accords with Egypt and Israel's subsequent withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula). His ideology reflects a moral and humanistic approach to Zionism that often appears to transcend shallow definitions of right and left. Yossef has referred to himself as a "Humanitarian Zionist" and a "Revolutionary Zionist".

Yossef now works as a realtor. In August 2005 he founded the Eli Joseph Jerusalem Real Estate company.^[12]