Avraham Poraz (; born 9 August 1945) is an Israeli lawyer and former politician.

Biography

Poraz was born in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

in 1945 and immigrated to Israel in 1950. He served in the Military Police Corps of the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

and later studied law in the

Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. It is the second-ol ...

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 ...

and was certified as a lawyer. From 1983 to 1988 he was a member of the

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 ...

Municipal Council and chairman of the City Auditing Committee. He was chairman of the

Shinui Shinui () was a Zionist, secular, and anti-clerical free market Liberalism worldwide, liberal party and political movement in Israel. The party twice became the third-largest in the Knesset, but both occasions were followed by a split and collaps ...

Party Secretariat from 1982 to 1983 and again from 1988 to 1990. From 1984 to 1988 he was head of the project for setting up the Israeli Channel 2, the cable TV and the regional radio. In 1988 he was elected to 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 Shinui. In the following election, he was elected for Meretz, into which Shinui had merged. He served as a member of the House Committee; the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee; the Ethics Committee; the Internal Affairs and Environment Committee and the Finance Committee. He also served as Chairman of the Economics Committee. In February 2003, he was appointed

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

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 ...

. In July 2004 it was revealed that a fellow Shinui party member,

Yosef Paritzky Yosef Yitzhak Paritzky (; 14 September 1955 – 5 October 2021) was an Israeli attorney, politician and columnist. Background Born and raised in the Beit HaKerem neighbourhood of Jerusalem, he attended high school in the Hebrew University Sec ...

, had tried to frame him during the party primary elections. Paritzky confessed and was fired from his position as Minister of Infrastructure. In December 2004, after Shinui had voted against the state budget for 2004, Sharon fired Poraz along with the rest of his faction. In the Shinui primary elections to the seventeenth Knesset, he lost the second place in its list. He left Shinui with ten other MKs and founded the Secular Faction, later renamed Hetz, which failed to pass the

electoral threshold The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of votes that a candidate or political party requires before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature. This limit can operate in various ...

. He then retired from politics and returned to legal practice. He is married, and has two children.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Poraz, Avraham 1945 births Living people Israeli lawyers Shinui leaders Meretz politicians Hetz (political party) politicians Romanian emigrants to Israel Israeli people of Romanian-Jewish descent Israeli Jews Romanian Jews Bukovina Jews Ministers of internal affairs of Israel Members of the 12th Knesset (1988–1992) Members of the 13th Knesset (1992–1996) Members of the 14th Knesset (1996–1999) Members of the 15th Knesset (1999–2003) Members of the 16th Knesset (2003–2006)