Ariel Atias (; born 13 November 1970) is 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

Shas Shas () is a Haredi Judaism, Haredi religious List of political parties in Israel, political party in Israel. Founded in 1984 by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a former Israeli Sephardic Jews, Sephardi chief rabbi, who remained its spiritual leader until ...

, and as the country's Minister of Housing and Construction. He was also manager of Shas' kosher supervision organization, Badatz Beit Yosef. On 22 June 2014, he handed his resignation from the Parliament, citing his departure from the political scene.

Early life

Born in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

to parents who were Jewish immigrants from

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

Career

Atias was first elected to the

on Shas' list in the 2006 elections. In May 2006, he was promoted to the position of Minister of Communications in the last

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

. He retained his seat in the 2009 elections, having been placed second on the Shas list, and was appointed Minister of Housing and Construction in the Netanyahu government. In June 2009, Atias called for the

segregation Segregation may refer to: Separation of people * Geographical segregation, rates of two or more populations which are not homogenous throughout a defined space * School segregation * Housing segregation * Racial segregation, separation of human ...

of Israel's Arab population from Jewish Israelis, saying that achieving it was "a national duty ... populations that should not mix are spreading ... I don't think that it is appropriate /nowiki>for them/nowiki> to live together". Atias retained his seat again in the 2013 Knesset elections, but Shas was not included in the coalition, resulting in Atias losing his ministerial post. He resigned from the Knesset in June 2014 in order to take a break from politics, and was replaced by Yoav Ben-Tzur.

Minister of Communications

As the Minister of Communications, Atias created a major cellular reform in Israel, which led to Israel's connectivity fees being one of the lowest in the OECD. He also created the number portability reform in which a user is given the rights to his cellular number, thus allowing users more freedom to move from one company to another, encouraging competition between cellular companies Another one of his initiatives as Minister of Communications was opening the market for Mobile virtual network operators. In 2007, he tried to get a law passed that would censor violence, sex, and gambling on the internet.Big Brother in Israel?
Ynetnews, 21 July 2007

Personal life

Atias is married, has four children, and lives in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

.Ariel Atias
Knesset website

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Atias, Ariel 1970 births Living people Politicians from Tel Aviv Israeli Orthodox Jews Shas leaders Israeli people of Moroccan-Jewish descent Badatz Beit Yosef Members of the 17th Knesset (2006–2009) Members of the 18th Knesset (2009–2013) Members of the 19th Knesset (2013–2015) Ministers of communications of Israel Ministers of housing of Israel