Yossi Beilin
| Yossi Beilin | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Date of birth | 12 June 1948 |
| Place of birth | Petah Tikva, Israel |
| Knessets | 12, 13, 14, 15, 17 |
| Faction represented in Knesset | |
| 1988-1999 | Labour |
| 2006–2008 | Meretz |
| Ministerial roles | |
| 1995 | Minister of Economics and Planning |
| 1995–1996 | Minister in the Prime Minister's Office |
| 1999–2001 | Minister of Justice |
| 2000–2001 | Minister of Religious Affairs |
Dr. Yosef "Yossi" Beilin (Hebrew: יוסף "יוסי" ביילין, born June 12, 1948) is an Israeli statesman and scholar who has served in multiple ministerial and leadership positions in the Israeli government. Much of his political career was in the Labour Party. He also served as chairman of the Meretz-Yachad political party. After retiring from political life, Beilin founded 'Beilink', a business consultancy company. He also writes opinion pieces in Israeli papers Haaretz and Israel Hayom.
Beilin was raised in Tel Aviv in a traditional liberal household. At the age of bar mitzvah, he adopted a more rigorously religious life, though did not choose to wear a yarmulke (traditional Jewish cap). He studied in Herzliya Gymnasium school. In the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), he served in the signal corps and participated in the Six-Day War (1967) in Sinai in Division 8. In the Yom Kippur War (1973) he served in the army headquarters. The trauma of the war shook his faith and he stopped living a religious lifestyle.
In 1969 he began his career as a journalist for the newspaper Davar and in 1977 entered the political arena as a spokesperson for the Labour Party. Following the 1984 election of Prime Minister Shimon Peres, he served as Cabinet Secretary and in 1986 became director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
During this period he worked to distance Israel from the apartheid regime in South Africa. In 1988 Beilin was elected to the Knesset by the Labour Party. He was appointed Deputy Minister of Finance, a position he held until the dissolution of the National Unity Government in 1990.
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