Shmuel Flatto-Sharon
| Shmuel Flatto-Sharon | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Date of birth | 18 January 1930 |
| Place of birth | Łódź, Poland |
| Year of aliyah | 1975 |
| Knessets | 9 |
| Faction represented in Knesset | |
| 1977–1981 | Development and Peace |
Shmuel "Samy" Flatto-Sharon (Hebrew: שמואל פלאטו-שרון, born 18 January 1930) is a controversial French-Israeli businessman, radio talk-show host and former politician who was a member of the Knesset between 1977 and 1981.
Flatto-Sharon was born in Łódź, Poland in 1930. His family escaped to France after the German invasion of Poland, with Shmuel disguised as a girl. He attended high school in Paris and Strasbourg, and joined the Young Communist League in 1945.
In 1975 he made aliyah to Israel, fleeing the French authorities as he was wanted for embezzling $60 million. Despite barely speaking Hebrew, in 1977 he formed a one-man party, also named Flatto-Sharon, to run in the Knesset elections that year, hoping to obtain parliamentary immunity to avoid extradition to France.
The list won 2% of the vote, enough for two seats. However, as it was a one-man list, only one seat was taken. It has been suggested that the surprising level of support that the party won was a response to France's refusal to extradite Abu Daoud, who was wanted in Israel for the murder of 11 Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich.
Once ensconced in the Knesset, Flatto-Sharon joined Menachem Begin's coalition, with one of his first acts being to vote in favour of a law that prohibited the extradition of Israeli citizens. He sat on the Economic Affairs Committee and in 1978 he renamed the party Development and Peace. During his Knesset term he was involved in negotiations to free Israeli POWs. The party ran in the 1981 and 1984 elections, but did not pass the electoral threshold of 1% in either, and subsequently disappeared. Flatto-Sharon was never extradited to France to serve the five-year sentence given to him in his absence, as the five-year statute of limitations had expired.
...
Wikipedia