Avraham Poraz ( he, אברהם פורז, born 9 August 1945) is an Israeli lawyer and former politician.

Biography

Poraz was born in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

in 1945 and

immigrated Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

to Israel in 1950. He served in the Military Police Corps of the Israel Defense Forces and later studied law in the

Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

and was certified as a lawyer. From 1983 to 1988 he was a member of the

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the ...

Municipal Council and chairman of the City Auditing Committee. He was chairman of the

Shinui Shinui ( he, שִׁינּוּי, lit. ''Change'') was a Zionist, secular, and anti-clerical free market liberal party and political movement in Israel. The party twice became the third-largest in the Knesset, but both occasions were followed by a ...

Party Secretariat from 1982 to 1983 and again from 1988 to 1990. From 1984 to 1988 he was head of the project for setting up the Israeli Channel 2, the cable TV and the regional radio. In 1988 he was elected to the

Knesset The Knesset ( he, הַכְּנֶסֶת ; "gathering" or "assembly") is the unicameral legislature of Israel. As the supreme state body, the Knesset is sovereign and thus has complete control of the entirety of the Israeli government (with ...

for Shinui. In the following election, he was elected for Meretz, into which Shinui had merged. He served as a member of the House Committee; the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee; the Ethics Committee; the Internal Affairs and Environment Committee and the Finance Committee. He also served as Chairman of the Economics Committee. In February 2003, he was appointed

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Ariel Sharon. In July 2004 it was revealed that a fellow Shinui party member,

Yosef Paritzky Yosef Yitzhak Paritzky ( he, יוסף יצחק פריצקי; 14 September 1955 – 5 October 2021) was an Israeli attorney, politician and columnist. Background Born and raised in the Beit HaKerem neighbourhood of Jerusalem, Paritzky studied l ...

, had tried to frame him during the party primary elections. Paritzky confessed and was fired from his position as Minister of Infrastructure. In December 2004, after Shinui had voted against the state budget for 2004, Sharon fired Poraz along with the rest of his faction. In the Shinui primary elections to the seventeenth Knesset, he lost the second place in its list. He left Shinui with ten other MKs and founded the Secular Faction, later renamed Hetz, which failed to pass the

electoral threshold The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of the primary vote that a candidate or political party requires to achieve before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature. This limit can ...

. He then retired from politics and returned to legal practice. He is married, and has two children.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Poraz, Avraham 1945 births Living people Israeli lawyers Shinui leaders Meretz politicians Hetz (political party) politicians Romanian emigrants to Israel Israeli people of Romanian-Jewish descent Israeli Jews Romanian Jews Bukovina Jews Ministers of Internal Affairs of Israel Members of the 12th Knesset (1988–1992) Members of the 13th Knesset (1992–1996) Members of the 14th Knesset (1996–1999) Members of the 15th Knesset (1999–2003) Members of the 16th Knesset (2003–2006)