Dov Zur ( he, דב צור; born 1956) is an Israeli politician and the former mayor of

Rishon LeZion Rishon LeZion ( he, רִאשׁוֹן לְצִיּוֹן , ''lit.'' First to Zion, Arabic: راشون لتسيون) is a city in Israel, located along the central Israeli coastal plain south of Tel Aviv. It is part of the Gush Dan metropolitan ar ...

Biography and personal life

Zur was born in Rishon LeZion on October 17, 1955, to a Syrian mother and Hungarian father. Zur is a divorcee and father of three children. His partner is Ariela Israeli, who served as head of the Education Administration of Rishon LeZion

Political career

Zur first ran for the Rishon LeZion City Council in 1993, and was elected. He served as Deputy Mayor under Meir Nitzan, but Resigned to serve in the Opposition. In 1998, he ran for Mayor of Rishon LeZion under his own party, "Quality Rishon" (Rishon Shel Echut), He lost to Nitzan, and continued to serve in the opposition. He ran again in 2003 under the Shinui Party, winning 37.55% of the Vote. Zur was elected on November 11, 2008, beating

Meir Nizan Meir Nitzan (; born 1931) is an Israeli politician. He was mayor of Rishon Lezion for five consecutive terms. Biography Meir Nitzan was born in Bucharest, Romania. He lived in a displaced persons' camp in Cyprus before making Aliyah at age 16. U ...

, who had served as mayor of Rishon Lezion for 25 years. Zur received 52.75% of the vote. He won Re-election in 2013 with 70.7% of the vote, and announced he would seek re-election in 2018. He ran against former Deputy Mayor,

Raz Kinstlich Raz Kinstlich ( he, רז קינסליך; born March 27, 1978) is an Israeli politician and the mayor of Rishon LeZion as of 2018. References 21st-century Israeli politicians Living people 1978 births Mayors of Rishon LeZion Date of birth ...

, winning 31.89% of the vote in the First Round to Kinslitch's 21.77%. In the Second Round, Zur was defeated with 47.37% of the vote against Kinslitch's 52.63%. He announced his retirement from the City Council subsequent to his loss

As Mayor of Rishon LeZion

After becoming mayor of Rishon LeZion, Zur made efforts to cancel construction permits granted by his predecessor, for environmental considerations. He abolished Middle school, extending the length of high school education to 6 years. Zur promoted the construction of the Brown Line of the Tel Aviv Light Rail, and offered to have Municipal authorities help fund the project. As part of a real-estate corruption investigation, on December 3, 2017, Tzur was detained for 8 days, on suspicion of accepting bribes, conspiracy to commit a crime, fraud and breach of trust. He was then released into a 10-day house arrest, and prohibitied from returning to his duties as Mayor for another 25 days. At the end of January 2018 he resumed his duties under restrictions, and was banned from attending or attending meetings of the Planning and Building Committee, the Tenders Committee, and the city’s Economic Society. In March 2019, the police stated that sufficient evidence had been found to substantiate suspicions that he had committed a bribery offense.

References

1956 births Living people Mayors of Rishon LeZion Tel Aviv University alumni Israeli people of Syrian-Jewish descent Israeli people of Hungarian-Jewish descent {{Israel-mayor-stub