Amram Mitzna (; born 20 February 1945) is an Israeli politician and former general in the IDF. He is a former

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

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 ...

(1993–2003) and

Yeruham Yeruham () is a local council (Israel), town in the Southern District (Israel), Southern District of Israel, in the Negev desert. It covers , and had a population of in . It is named after the Hebrew Bible, Biblical Jeroham. Until early 2011 th ...

(2005–2010) and led the Labor Party from 2002 to 2003. In 2012 he joined Hatnuah.

Youth, education, and military service

He was born in Kibbutz Dovrat to

Jewish refugees This article lists expulsions, refugee crises and other forms of displacement that have affected Jews. Timeline The following is a list of Jewish expulsions and events that prompted significant streams of Jewish refugees. Assyrian captivity ...

that escaped from Nazi Germany. He attended a military boarding school in

, graduating from the Hebrew Reali School in 1963 and enlisting into the IDF the same year. He served in various positions in the IDF armored force, the Command and Staff College, and the Operations Division in the General Staff, receiving the Medal of Distinguished Service for his actions during the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

and the

Yom Kippur War The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was fought from 6 to 25 October 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states led by Egypt and S ...

, both of which saw him wounded. In 1977 he graduated from the

University of Haifa The University of Haifa (, ) is a public research university located on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. Founded in 1963 as a branch of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Haifa received full academic accreditation as an inde ...

with a degree in geography, before studying at the

U.S. Army War College The United States Army War College (USAWC) is a United States Army, U.S. Army staff college in Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, with a Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Carlisle postal address, on the 500-acre (2 km2) campus of the historic Carlisle B ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, finishing his course in 1979. In 1986 he was promoted to major general, and assisted the Head of the Operations branch. In 1987 he became commander of the Central Command, and in 1989 completed the program for senior public figures at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. In 1990 he became head of the IDF's planning branch, and gained an MA from Haifa University in political science. He retired from the IDF in 1993.

Political career

In 1993, the same year as finishing his military career, Mitzna was elected mayor of

representing

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

, and re-elected in 1998. He won the Labor's leadership election on 19 November 2002 with 53.6% of the vote, defeating incumbent

Binyamin Ben-Eliezer Binyamin "Fuad" Ben-Eliezer (, ; 12 February 1936 – 28 August 2016) was an Iraqi-born Israeli politician and general. He served as a member of the Knesset between 1984 and 2014, and held several ministerial posts, including Minister of Indust ...

and Member of the Knesset Haim Ramon. During campaigning for the 2003 elections, Mitzna proposed that Israel pursue further negotiations with the

Palestinian Authority The Palestinian Authority (PA), officially known as the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), is the Fatah-controlled government body that exercises partial civil control over the Palestinian enclaves in the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, ...

, but if they failed to yield a solution, that Israel withdraw from the Gaza Strip and most of the West Bank, and unilaterally set its final borders. His position was lambasted by

Likud Likud (, ), officially known as Likud – National Liberal Movement (), is a major Right-wing politics, right-wing, political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon in an alliance with several right-wing par ...

leader

Ariel Sharon Ariel Sharon ( ; also known by his diminutive Arik, ; 26 February 192811 January 2014) was an Israeli general and politician who served as the prime minister of Israel from March 2001 until April 2006. Born in Kfar Malal in Mandatory Palestin ...

, though later partially implemented by him as the disengagement plan. Mitzna oversaw Labor's second worst electoral performance up to 2003 when leading it in that year's election. the party won just 19 seats. He resigned as party leader shortly after, replaced by

Shimon Peres Shimon Peres ( ; ; born Szymon Perski, ; 2 August 1923 – 28 September 2016) was an Israeli politician and statesman who served as the prime minister of Israel from 1984 to 1986 and from 1995 to 1996 and as the president of Israel from 2007 t ...

. In November 2005, the Internal Affairs Minister appointed Mitzna acting mayor of

, a town in the southern

Negev The Negev ( ; ) or Naqab (), is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The region's largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba (pop. ), in the north. At its southern end is the Gulf of Aqaba and the resort town, resort city ...

region, after the elected mayor was forced to step aside, due to incompetence. Mitzna resigned from the Knesset to take up the role. In April 2008 and June 2009, Mitzna signed letters of support for the recently created J Street American pro-peace lobby group. Mitzna ran for the leadership of the Labor party a second time in

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

. He won 12% of the vote in the first round and was eliminated. he endorsed

Amir Peretz Amir Peretz (; born 9 March 1952) is an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for the Israeli Labor Party, Labor Party. A Knesset member almost continuously from 1988 to 2021, he has served as Ministry of Defense (Israel), ...

in the second round. On 1 December 2012, Mitzna joined

Tzipi Livni Tziporah Malka "Tzipi" Livni (, ; born 8 July 1958) is an Israeli politician, diplomat and lawyer. A former member of the Knesset and leader in the center-left political camp, Livni is a former Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Israel), foreign mini ...

's new party, Hatnuah. He was elected to the Knesset in second place on the party's list in the 2013 elections. On 24 December 2014 he announced he was retiring from politics and would not seek re-election in

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

, although he supported the Zionist Union, an alliance of Hatnuah and Labor that had been formed for the elections.Livni's Hatnuah disintegrating as Mitzna quits, Sheetrit expected to follow
Haaretz, 25 December 2014

References

External links

*
Amram Mitzna - Labor
Haaretz

Jewish Virtual Library
Official website (Hebrew) Amram Mitzna
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitzna, Amram 1945 births Living people Hebrew Reali School alumni Harvard University alumni Mayors of Haifa Israeli generals Jewish Israeli politicians Recipients of the Medal of Distinguished Service Israeli Labor Party leaders Hatnua politicians Israeli Ashkenazi Jews Israeli people of German-Jewish descent University of Haifa alumni Leaders of the opposition (Israel) Members of the 16th Knesset (2003–2006) Members of the 19th Knesset (2013–2015) Military Boarding School for Command alumni