Avraham Hirschson

Avraham Hirschson
Date of birth 11 February 1941 (1941-02-11) (age 71)
Place of birth
Knessets 10th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th
Party Kadima
Former parties Likud
Ministerial posts
(current in bold)		 Minister of Finance
Minister of Tourism
Minister of Communications

Avraham Hirchson (Hebrew: אברהם הירשזון‎, born February 11, 1941) was an Israeli politician. He served as a member of the Knesset for Likud and Kadima between 1981 and 1984, and again from 1992 until 2009. He also held the posts of Minister of Communications, Minister of Finance and Minister of Tourism. He resigned following allegations of corruption, and was ultimately convicted of stealing close to 2 million shekels from the National Workers Labor Federation while he was its chairman.[1][2][3]

Contents

Background

Hirchson was born in Tel Mond and currently resides in Tel Aviv. From 1970 to 1992, he was secretary-general for the National Youth League (the youth branch of the National Histadrut). He has been the chairman of the National Histadrut since 1995 and chairman of the National Health Fund since 1996 (the revisionist counterparts to the larger General Histadrut and General Health Fund respectively). He helped found the March of the Living programme in 1988, but has not been involved in the organization for a number of years. During his involvement with the March of the Living the organization was accused of handling donations in a non-transparent manner.[4]

Political career

As a member of the Likud Party, Hirchson joined the Knesset as a mid-term replacement in June 1983 and served until the end of the 10th Knesset in July 1984. He rejoined the Knesset in 1992, having been elected to the 13th Knesset, and has served since then. On January 10, 2005, he replaced Gideon Ezra as Minister of Tourism. In late November 2005, he resigned from the Likud and joined Kadima. On 18 January 2006, he was appointed Minister of Communications while retaining the Tourism ministry. That appointment filled one of the vacancies left by the resignation of all Labour Party ministers in November 2005, the act that resulted in the calling of elections for March 2006.

Following the 2006 elections, Hirchson became Minister of Finance as part of the Kadima-led 31st Government, which took office on May 4, 2006.

Hirchson, who has been a strong advocate for the privatization of Israeli state-owned services, stunned his audience at the 2006 Caesarea Forum with allegations that anonymous individuals opposed to his reforms have attempted to bring harm to his person. He was quoted by Haaretz in its June 23, 2006 edition saying, "There are people who are trying to harm me and my family, by means of pressure and threats ... Detectives are following me, with the aim of harming me. This will not work with me; even if the threats intensify, I will continue to promote the reforms that are so important for the people of Israel."

On March 20, 2007, Hirchson was investigated for seven hours by Israeli police regarding an alleged embezzlement at a non-profit organization while serving as the chairman of the National Workers Labor Federation.[5] He suspended himself from May to July while Israeli police investigated him for embezzlement,[6] before resigning on July 1.[7]

In May 2008, Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz announced that Hirchson would be indicted with a string of crimes including breach of trust, aggravated fraud, theft, forgery of corporate documents and money laundering.[8] In June 2009, Hirschson was convicted of embezzling millions of shekels from the National Workers Labor Federation while he was its chairman.[1] In July, he was sentenced to five years and five months of jail and a fine of 450,000 shekels.[9] He began serving his sentence on September 1, 2009.[10] He submitted an appeal to the Supreme Court on September 24, 2009.[11]

Hirschson lost his Knesset seat in the 2009 elections.

References

  1. ^ a b The court ruled: Avraham Hirschson stole (in Hebrew). Ynet, published June 8, 2009: "The judge in the district court for Tel-Aviv, Bracha Ophir Tom, convicted Hirschson of stealing approximately 2 million shekels from the National Workers Labor Federation...."
  2. ^ Prosecutors demand 'harsh' prison term for convicted ex-finance minister, Haaretz, published June 18, 2009.
  3. ^ On the eve of his sentencing, Hirschson returned another 570,000 shekels to the National Workers Labor Federation (in Hebrew). Haaretz, published June 23, 2009: "... the amount of money [stolen] was not decided formally by the judge, who said orally during the sentencing hearings that her calculations place the figure at 1.79 million shekels. Since the issue was not formally decided by the court, [defense attorney Yaakov] Weinrot informed the National Workers Labor Federation that according to their calculations [Hirschson] was convicted of stealing 1.73 million shekels."
  4. ^ Shoah march offices used for political activity? Ynetnews, June 21, 2006
  5. ^ Hirchson under investigation over embezzlement Ynetnews, March 20, 2007
  6. ^ Finance minister suspends himself Jerusalem Post, April 23, 2007
  7. ^ Finance Minister resigns in wake of police graft probe Haaretz, 1 July 2007
  8. ^ Hirchson to be charged with embezzling millions of shekels, Haaretz, May 4, 2008.
  9. ^ Former treasury minister Avraham Hirschson to serve 5 years and 5 months in jail (in Hebrew). Haaretz, June 24, 2009.
  10. ^ http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/international/Israel;art123,2888295
  11. ^ Hirschson appeals today to the supreme court: 'Serious mistakes in verdict' (in Hebrew). Haaretz, September 24, 2009.

See also

External links

Nurock (1952) · Burg (1952–58) · Barzilai (1958–59) · Mintz (1960–61) · Sasson (1961–67) · Yeshayahu (1967–69) · Rimalt (1969–70) · Peres (1970–74) · Uzan (1974) · Rabin (1974–75) · Uzan (1975–77) · Begin (1977) · Amit (1977–78) · Moda'i (1979–80) · Aridor (1981) · Tzipori (1981–84) · Rubinstein (1984–87) · Yaacobi (1987–90) · Pinhasi (1990–92) · Shahal (1992–93) · Aloni (1993–96) · Livnat (1996–99) · Ben-Eliezer (1999–2001) · Rivlin (2001–03) · Sharon (2003) · Olmert (2003–05) · Itzik (2005) · Hirschson (2006) · Atias (2006–2009) · Kahlon (2009–)
Kaplan (1948–52) · Eshkol (1952–63) · Sapir (1963–68) · Sherf (1968–69) · Sapir (1969–74) · Rabinovitz (1974–77) · Erlich (1977–79) · Hurvitz (1979–81) · Aridor (1981–83) · Cohen-Orgad (1983–84) · Moda'i (1984–86) · Nissim (1986–88) · Peres (1988–90) · Shamir (1990) · Moda'i (1990–92) · Shochat (1992–96) · Meridor (1996–97) · Netanyahu (1997) · Ne'eman (1997–98) · Netanyahu (1998–99) · Sheetrit (1999) · Shochat (1999–2001) · Shalom (2001–03) · Netanyahu (2003–05) · Olmert (2005–06) · Hirschson (2006–07) · Bar-On (2007–09) · Steinitz (2009–)
Govrin (1964-66) · Kol (1966-77) · Patt (1981) · Sharir (1981-88) · Patt (1988-92) · Baram (1992-96) · Katsav (1996-99) · Barak (1999) · Lipkin-Shahak (1999-2001) · Ze'evi (2001) · Elon (2001-02) · Levy (2002-03) · Elon (2003-04) · Ezra (2004-05) · Hirschson (2005-06) · Herzog (2006-07) · Aharonovich (2007-08) · Avraham (2008-09) · Misezhnikov (2009-)