Uri Yehuda Ariel ( he, אורי אריאל, born 22 December 1952) is an Israeli politician who formerly served as a member of 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 (wit ...
for
The Jewish Home
The Jewish Home ( he, הַבַּיִת הַיְהוּדִי, HaBayit HaYehudi) is an Orthodox Jewish and religious Zionist political party in Israel. It was originally formed by a merger of the National Religious Party, Moledet, and Tkuma in ...
(within which he chaired the
Tkuma faction), and as
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Republic of Poland ( pl, Ministerstwo Rolnictwa i Rozwoju Wsi) was formed in October 1999 from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Economy of Poland; the ministry can trace its history ...
.
Biography
Uri Ariel was born in
Afula, and grew up on kibbutz
Tirat Tzvi
Tirat Zvi ( he, טִירַת צְבִי, lit. ''Zvi Castle'') is a religious kibbutz in the Beit She'an Valley, ten kilometers south of the city of Beit She'an, Israel, just west of the Jordan River and the Israel-Jordan border. It falls under the ...
, which his father had helped found. He attended school in
Sde Eliyahu, and was conscripted into the
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...
in 1971. Ariel served in
Palsar 7, the reconnaissance
company
A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared ...
of the
7th Armored Brigade, and retired as a major. He became involved in
Israeli settlement
Israeli settlements, or Israeli colonies, are civilian communities inhabited by Israeli citizens, overwhelmingly of Jewish ethnicity, built on lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. The international community considers Israeli se ...
s, and served as secretary general of both the
Amana settlement movement and the
Yesha Council
The Yesha Council ( he, מועצת יש"ע, ''Mo'etzet Yesha'', which is the Hebrew acronym for Yehuda Shomron, Aza, lit. "Judea Samaria and Gaza Council") is an umbrella organization of municipal councils of Jewish settlements in the West Ban ...
, as well as head of
Beit El
Beit El or Beth El ( he, בֵּית אֵל) is an Israeli settlement and local council located in the Binyamin Region of the West Bank. The Orthodox Jewish town was settled in 1977-78 by the ultranationalist group Gush Emunim. It is located in ...
local council. He was also a member of the
Jewish National Fund
Jewish National Fund ( he, קֶרֶן קַיֶּימֶת לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, ''Keren Kayemet LeYisrael'', previously , ''Ha Fund HaLeumi'') was founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in Ottoman Syria (later Mandatory Palestine, and subsequ ...
directorate.
Ariel is married, with 6 children.
Political career
For the
1999 Knesset elections, he was placed seventh on the
National Union list. Although he missed out when the party won only four seats, Ariel entered the Knesset on 17 October 2001 as a replacement for the assassinated
Rehavam Ze'evi.
He was placed sixth on the alliance's list for the
2003 elections, and retained his seat when the party won seven mandates. Prior to the scheduled
Israeli withdrawal from the
Gaza Strip
The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...
and the northern
West Bank
The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
in August 2005, Ariel moved to
Kfar Darom in solidarity, and he firmly opposed the plan. Similarly, he also moved to
Amona Amona may refer to:
Places
* Amona, Goa, a village in Goa, India
* Amona, Mateh Binyamin, an Israeli outpost in the central West Bank
*Isla de Mona
Mona ( es, Isla de Mona) is the third-largest island of the Puerto Rican archipelago, after the ...
prior to the dismantling of the outpost.
Originally placed fifth on the National Union Knesset list for the
2006 elections, Ariel conceded his spot to
Aryeh Eldad
Aryeh Eldad, M.D. ( he, אריה אלדד, born 1 May 1950) is an Israeli physician, politician and former medical officer.
Eldad is a professor of medicine, and was head of the plastic surgery and burns unit at the Hadassah Medical Center. He w ...
, and was listed 6th. After the alliance agreed to run a joint list with the
National Religious Party
The National Religious Party ( he, מִפְלָגָה דָּתִית לְאֻומִּית, ''Miflaga Datit Leumit'', commonly known in Israel by its Hebrew acronym Mafdal, ) was a political party in Israel representing the religious Zionist moveme ...
, Ariel was placed ninth, and retained his seat as the party won nine mandates.
During the
Sukkot
or ("Booths, Tabernacles")
, observedby = Jews, Samaritans, a few Protestant denominations, Messianic Jews, Semitic Neopagans
, type = Jewish, Samaritan
, begins = 15th day of Tishrei
, ends = 21st day of Tis ...
festival in 2006, Ariel ascended to the
Temple Mount
The Temple Mount ( hbo, הַר הַבַּיִת, translit=Har haBayīt, label=Hebrew, lit=Mount of the House f the Holy}), also known as al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf (Arabic: الحرم الشريف, lit. 'The Noble Sanctuary'), al-Aqsa Mosque compou ...
, saying he was preparing a plan to build a
synagogue
A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of wor ...
on the mount. The proposed synagogue would not be built instead of the
mosques
A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, i ...
, but in a separate area, in accordance with rulings of the prominent
Rabbi
A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as '' semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form o ...
s. Ariel said he believed that this would be correcting a historical injustice, and that it is an opportunity for the Muslim world to prove that it is tolerant to other faiths.
In March 2008, Ariel opposed 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 (wit ...
House Committee's decision to let
Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Opp ...
deliver her speech to the Knesset in German. In this context, he also referred to the German people as "the mother of all
Amalekites".
For the
2009 elections, Ariel was placed second on the National Union list, retaining his seat as the party won four mandates.
After
Hilltop Youth attacked an Israeli army base in 2011, Ariel protested Israeli officials who called the group "terrorists", and condemned calls for the use of lethal force to repel such attacks in the future. In January 2012, Ariel admitted to giving IDF troop movement information to such militants in order to facilitate disruption of army activities, saying, "If a person who transfers information about IDF movements is a spy, then I am a spy".
Ariel was ranked by the settler NGO
Matot Arim as the most effective right-wing MK in 2011, and the second most right-wing in 2012. In 2011, he was the sponsor of a Knesset bill which would ban the use of Nazi references, except in certain situations, such as teaching, documentation, or if the reference is found to have been correct. In December 2014, a group of academics called on the United States and European Union to impose sanctions on Ariel and three other Israelis "who lead efforts to insure permanent Israeli occupation of the West Bank and to annex all or parts of it unilaterally in violation of international law".
Anti-BDS Professors Launch Push To Ban 4 Far Right Israeli Leaders: Zionist 'Third Narrative' Academics Target Naftali Bennett
The Jewish Daily Forward, 12 December 2014
Following the 2015 elections, Ariel was appointed Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.
In July 2013, Ariel said, "We need to state clearly that there won't be a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River
The Jordan River or River Jordan ( ar, نَهْر الْأُرْدُنّ, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn'', he, נְהַר הַיַּרְדֵּן, ''Nəhar hayYardēn''; syc, ܢܗܪܐ ܕܝܘܪܕܢܢ ''Nahrāʾ Yurdnan''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Shariea ...
." In January 2016, he called on the government to annex Area C of the West Bank during a tour of the West Bank led by the Knesset Land for Israel Caucus.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ariel, Uri
1952 births
Living people
Israeli activists
Israeli settlers
Israeli Orthodox Jews
Mayors of local councils in Israel
Members of the 15th Knesset (1999–2003)
Members of the 16th Knesset (2003–2006)
Members of the 17th Knesset (2006–2009)
Members of the 18th Knesset (2009–2013)
Members of the 19th Knesset (2013–2015)
Members of the 20th Knesset (2015–2019)
Ministers of Agriculture of Israel
National Union (Israel) politicians
People from Afula
The Jewish Home politicians
Religious Zionist Party leaders