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Shlomo Ben-Ami ( he, שלמה בן עמי; born 17 July 1943) is a former Israeli diplomat, politician, and historian.


Biography

Shlomo Benabou (later Ben-Ami) was born in Tangiers, Morocco. He
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 1955. He was educated at
Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...
and
St Antony's College, Oxford St Antony's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1950 as the result of the gift of French merchant Sir Antonin Besse of Aden, St Antony's specialises in international relations, economics ...
from which he received a D.Phil. in history. Ben-Ami speaks fluent Hebrew, Spanish, French, and English.


Academic career

He was a historian at
Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...
from the mid-1970s, serving as head of the School of History from 1982 to 1986. His initial field of study was Spanish history; his 1983 biography of the former Spanish dictator (1923–30), General Primo de Rivera, is recognized as the most authoritative study on this subject. He later turned his attention to the history of Israel and the Middle East, leaving a legacy of expertise in Spanish interwar politics.


Diplomatic and political career

From 1987 until 1991, before he entered politics, he was the Israeli ambassador to Spain. In
1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone on b ...
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 ...
on Labour's list. When the
One Israel One Israel ( he, ישראל אחת, ''Yisrael Ahat'') was an alliance of the Labor Party, Meimad and Gesher created to run for the 1999 Knesset elections. Background One Israel was formed by Labor leader Ehud Barak in the run-up to the 19 ...
-led government of
Ehud Barak Ehud Barak ( he-a, אֵהוּד בָּרָק, Ehud_barak.ogg, link=yes, born Ehud Brog; 12 February 1942) is an Israeli general and politician who served as the tenth prime minister from 1999 to 2001. He was leader of the Labor Party until Ja ...
took office in July 1999, Ben-Ami became the Minister of Internal Security, responsible for the
Israel Police The Israel Police ( he, משטרת ישראל, ''Mišteret Yisra'el''; ar, شرطة إسرائيل, ''Shurtat Isrāʼīl'') is the civilian police force of Israel. As with most other police forces in the world, its duties include crime fightin ...
. In August 2000, when David Levy resigned as Foreign Minister during talks with Palestinian leaders in the United States, Barak designated Ben-Ami to be the acting Foreign Minister and he was officially appointed to the role in November 2000. Ben-Ami remained Foreign Minister and Security Minister until March 2001, when, having won elections,
Ariel Sharon Ariel Sharon (; ; ; also known by his diminutive Arik, , born Ariel Scheinermann, ; 26 February 1928 – 11 January 2014) was an Israeli general and politician who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Israel from March 2001 until April 2006. S ...
took over from Barak. Ben-Ami refused to serve in the Sharon government and resigned from the Knesset in August 2002. In their report published in 2003, the Or Commission held him responsible for the behavior of security forces during the
October 2000 riots The October 2000 protests, also known as October 2000 events, were a series of protests in Arab villages in northern Israel in October 2000 that turned violent, escalating into rioting by Israeli Arabs, which led to counter-rioting by Israeli Je ...
in which Israeli police killed 12
Israeli Arabs The Arab citizens of Israel are the largest ethnic minority in the country. They comprise a hybrid community of Israeli citizens with a heritage of Palestinian citizenship, mixed religions (Muslim, Christian or Druze), bilingual in Arabic and ...
and one Palestinian, and failed to predict and control rioting which resulted in the death of a Jewish Israeli. The report recommended that Ben-Ami be disqualified from serving as Internal Security Minister in the future. Despite the disqualification, Ben-Ami was not considered to be a hard-liner in Israeli relations with the Palestinians and during his time in the Barak government, he was a political rival of
Shimon Peres Shimon Peres (; he, שמעון פרס ; born Szymon Perski; 2 August 1923 – 28 September 2016) was an Israeli politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Israel from 1984 to 1986 and from 1995 to 1996 and as the ninth president of ...
. Ben-Ami is currently Vice-President of the Toledo International Centre for Peace (TICpax), which, according to its mission statement, "seeks to contribute to the prevention and resolution of violent or potentially violent international or intranational conflicts and to the consolidation of peace, within a framework of respect and promotion of Human Rights and democratic values." Ben-Ami is the author of '' Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli–Arab Tragedy'' (Oxford, 2006), which challenges many of the founding myths in Israel's modern history especially related to the war of independence. His latest book is
Prophets without Honor: The 2000 Camp David Summit and the End of the Two-State Solution
' (Oxford, 2022). Ben-Ami backed the
Meretz Meretz ( he, מֶרֶצ, ) is a left-wing political party in Israel. The party was formed in 1992 by the merger of Ratz, Mapam and Shinui, and was at its peak between 1992 and 1996 when it had 12 seats. It currently has no seats in the Knesset ...
party for the 2009 Knesset elections.


Later career

He currently serves as vice president of the Toledo International Centre for Peace of which he is a co-founder.Israel versus America versus Iran , US & Canada , Al Jazeera
/ref> Through the center, he has been involved in conflict resolution processes such as among others, in Colombia, Dominican Republic ( the tensions with Haiti ), Bolivia ( intercultural issues ), Russia-Georgia, Libya ; Spanish Sahara, and Israel-the Arab world. He is now also the co-chair ( together with ex-chief of Mossad Efraim Halevi ) of an Israeli commission for strategic planning. He has lectured extensively in international conferences in Europe, Russia, the U.S. and Latin America. He is a regular contributor to Project Syndicate since 2006.


Published works

*''The Origins of the Second Republic in Spain'' (Oxford University Press, 1978). *''Fascism from Above: Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera in Spain, 1923–1930'' (Oxford University Press, 1983) *''Spain between Dictatorship and Democracy'' (1980) *''Anatomia de una Transición'' natomy of a Transition(1990) *''Italy between Liberalism and Fascism'' (1986) *''Historia del Estado de Israel'' -junto a Zvi Medin- (Ediciones Rialp, 1981). *''Quel avenir pour Israël?'' hich Future for Israel? (Presses Universitaires de France, 2001) (Hachette Littérature 2002), . *''A Front Without a Homefront: A Voyage to the Boundaries of the Peace Process'' (Yedioth Ahatonoth, Tel-Aviv, 2004). *'' Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli–Arab Tragedy'' (Oxford University Press 2006), . * ''Prophets Without Honor'' (Oxford University Press 2022)


References


External links

*
Column archives
at
Project Syndicate Project Syndicate is an international media organization that publishes and syndicates commentary and analysis on a variety of global topics. All opinion pieces are published on the ''Project Syndicate'' website, but are also distributed to a wi ...
* *
The Rise and Fall of the Oslo Process
University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of D ...
lecture, 2 March 2004
Debate
with Norman Finkelstein, '' Democracy Now'', 14 February 2006
Toledo International Centre for Peace – TICpax
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ben-Ami, Shlomo 1943 births Living people Alumni of St Antony's College, Oxford Ambassadors of Israel to Spain Historians of the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera Israeli Jews Israeli Labor Party politicians Members of the 14th Knesset (1996–1999) Members of the 15th Knesset (1999–2003) Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Israel Ministers of Public Security of Israel 20th-century Moroccan Jews Moroccan emigrants to Israel One Israel politicians People from Asilah People from Kiryat Shmona Tel Aviv University alumni Tel Aviv University faculty