Eliezer Peri (; 2 February 1902 – 1 December 1970) was an Israeli politician who served as a member of the

Knesset The Knesset ( , ) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Israel. The Knesset passes all laws, elects the President of Israel, president and Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister, approves the Cabinet of Israel, cabinet, and supe ...

for

Mapam File:Pre-State_Zionist_Workers'_Parties_chart.png, chart of zionist workers parties, 360px, right rect 167 83 445 250 Hapoel Hatzair rect 450 88 717 265 The non-partisans (pre-state Zionist political movement), Non Partisans rect 721 86 995 243 ...

between 1949 and 1955.

Biography

Born Eliezer Wilder-Frei in the village of

Surochów Surochów is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Jarosław, within Jarosław County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in south-eastern Poland. It lies approximately east of Jarosław and east of the regional capital Rzeszów. People * ...

, near

Jarosław Jarosław (; , ; ; ) is a town in southeastern Poland, situated on the San (river), San River. The town had 35,475 inhabitants in 2023. It is the capital of Jarosław County in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship. History Jarosław is located in the ...

, in the

Kingdom of Galicia The Kingdom of Galicia was a political entity located in southwestern Europe, which at its territorial zenith occupied the entire northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. In the early 10th century, the Kingdom of Galicia was formed following the div ...

(today in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

), Peri helped establish a Jewish High School in

Lviv Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

, and was one of its first graduates. He joined the

Hashomer Hatzair Hashomer Hatzair (, , 'The Young Guard') is a Labor Zionism, Labor Zionist, secular Jewish youth movement founded in 1913 in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary. It was also the name of the Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party, the ...

youth group, becoming a member of its leadership and, in 1920, its secretary. Between 1922 and 1925 he studied law and humanities at a teachers' seminary. In 1924 he helped establish the World Federation of Hashomer Hatzair. In 1926 he

emigrated Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...

. In 1929, he became a member of

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

Workers Council. Amongst the founders of

HaKibbutz HaArtzi The Kibbutz Movement (, ''HaTnu'a HaKibbutzit'') is the largest settlement movement for kibbutzim in Israel. It was formed in 1999 by a partial merger of the United Kibbutz Movement and Kibbutz Artzi and is made up of approximately 230 kibbutzim. I ...

, he also helped establish kibbutz Merhavia in 1929. In 1930, he started work as an emissary of the

Histadrut Histadrut, fully the New General Workers' Federation () and until 1994 the General Federation of Labour in the Land of Israel (, ''HaHistadrut HaKlalit shel HaOvdim B'Eretz Yisrael''), is Israel's national trade union center and represents the m ...

trade union and Hashomer Hatzair in Europe. Between 1933 and 1949 he served on the Histadrut's council and executive committee. In 1943 he helped establish the ''Mishmar'' newspaper (which later became ''

Al HaMishmar ''Al HaMishmar'' (, ''On Guard'') was a daily newspaper published in Mandatory Palestine and Israel between 1943 and 1995. The paper was owned by, and affiliated with Hashomer Hatzair as well as the Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party of Palestine, ...

''), and was one of its first editors. The following year he became a member of the Assembly of Representatives. In 1948, he helped establish

, and was amongst the party's leadership. On several occasions, as editor of Al HaMishmar, he received letters from soldiers about the Israeli army killing civilians. In early June 1948 he received an account of an old woman and a child being shot; on 8 November he received a detailed description of events at Al Dawayima. This led to the issue being raised in the Mapam Political Committee and from there to the cabinet. The subsequent official inquiry, headed by Shimshon Schapira, remains classified and secret. He was elected to the Knesset on the party's list in

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2025 * January 2 – Luis ...

, and in August 1949 was involved, for the first time in public, in a short debate about the expulsion of Arabs.Morris, page 242. From Ja'una, east of

Safad Safed (), also known as Tzfat (), is a city in the Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of up to , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and in Israel. Safed has been identified with (), a fortified town in the Upper Gal ...

"with brutality". He was re-elected in

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the Uni ...

, but lost his seat in the 1955 elections, and in 1969 he left Mapam in protest at its

alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or sovereign state, states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an a ...

with the Labor Party, joining

Ya'akov Riftin Ya'akov Riftin (; 16 March 1907 – 14 May 1978) was an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Mapam between 1949 and 1965. Biography Born in near Puławy in the Russian Empire (today in Poland), Riftin joined the HaShome ...

's Independent Socialist Zionist Union, which ran unsuccessfully in elections for the Histadrut. He died the following year.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Peri, Eliezer 1902 births 1970 deaths People from Jarosław County Jewish socialists Polish emigrants to Israel Polish Zionists Hashomer Hatzair members 20th-century Israeli Jews Members of the Assembly of Representatives (Mandatory Palestine) Mapam politicians Members of the 1st Knesset (1949–1951) Members of the 2nd Knesset (1951–1955) Immigrants of the Fourth Aliyah