Dov Yosef ( he, דב יוסף, 27 May 1899 – 7 January 1980) was an Israeli statesman. During the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 (or First) Arab–Israeli War was the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. It formally began following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine at midnight on 14 May 1948; the Israeli Declaration of Independence had ...

, he was in charge of Jerusalem. He later held ministerial positions in nine Israeli governments.

Biography

Bernard Joseph (later Dov Yosef) was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He attended McGill University, Université Laval, and the University of London, qualifying as an attorney. Yosef founded the Canadian Young Judaea Zionist youth movement in 1917, and immigrated to Palestine in 1918 with the Canadian Jewish Legion which he helped organize. After the end of World War I, Yosef worked as an attorney in Mandatory Palestine. In December 1947 the Jewish Agency and Ben Gurion appointed him head of the Jerusalem Emergency Committee; he continued to serve in that position during the early part of the

1948 Arab-Israeli War Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect. ** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British ...

, during the Blockade. On August 2, 1948 he was appointed Military Governor of Jerusalem. (Both of his daughters fought in the war, and his younger daughter was killed in it.)

Political career

In 1933 Yosef joined David Ben-Gurion's Mapai party. Three years later he became legal adviser to the Political Department of the Jewish Agency He became a member of the Jewish Agency Executive Committee and a member of the World Zionist Organization's Political Committee. He was elected to the first Knesset in January 1949. He was initially appointed Minister of Rationing and Supply in the first government, a key position during the austerity period. In June 1949 he was also appointed Agriculture Minister. The first government collapsed in October 1950 due to wranglings over refugee camps and religious education, but also because Ben-Gurion wanted the Rationing and Supply Ministry closed down. The Prime Minister got his way, and in the new government Yosef was moved to the transportation ministry. He retained his seat in the 1951 elections, and was appointed as both Minister of Justice and Minister of Trade and Industry, losing the former portfolio in June 1952. After the government collapsed again over the issue of religious education in December 1952, Yosef was initially appointed

Minister without Portfolio A minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister who does not head a particular ministry. The sinecure is particularly common in countries ruled by coalition governments and a cabinet w ...

in the new government, before switching to the Development Ministry in June 1953. He retained this position in the new government formed by Moshe Sharett after Ben-Gurion had resigned to go and live on

Kibbutz A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...

Sde Boker. After Sharett resigned and formed a new government again in 1955, Yosef remained Development Minister, but also became Minister of Health. He retained his seat again in the 1955 elections, but was not appointed to a ministerial post. He lost his seat in the 1959 elections, and never regained MK status. However, during the fifth Knesset he was appointed Minister of Justice by Ben-Gurion despite being outside the Knesset. When Ben-Gurion was replaced by Eshkol he remained Justice Minister, but was not reappointed after the 1965 elections. Yosef caused a political scandal when he published in 1960 an autobiographic book, "The Faithful City", which focused on the siege of Jerusalem in 1948. He claimed that David Shaltiel, the commander of Jerusalem gave him a wrong picture of the situation in the city, causing the fall of the old city.

References

External links

* *The Central Zionist Archives in Jerusale
site
Office of Dov Joseph and Louis Arieh Pincus (S60) {{DEFAULTSORT:Yosef, Dov 1899 births 1980 deaths 20th-century Canadian lawyers 20th-century Israeli lawyers Alumni of the University of London Canadian Jews Canadian emigrants to Mandatory Palestine Canadian Zionists Heads of the Jewish Agency for Israel Israeli Jews Israeli people of Canadian-Jewish descent Jewish Agency for Israel Jewish Israeli politicians Mapai politicians McGill University alumni Members of the 1st Knesset (1949–1951) Members of the 2nd Knesset (1951–1955) Members of the 3rd Knesset (1955–1959) Ministers of Agriculture of Israel Ministers of Development of Israel Ministers of Health of Israel Ministers of Justice of Israel Ministers of Transport of Israel Ministers without Portfolio of Israel Politicians from Montreal Université Laval alumni