Desta "Gadi" Yevarkan (; born 1 January 1981) is an Israeli politician. 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

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 ...

in 2020, having previously served as a Knesset member for the Blue and White alliance between 2019 and 2020.

Biography

Yevarkan was born in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

. His family

emigrated Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

to Israel in 1991 as part of

Operation Solomon Operation Solomon (, Mivtza Shlomo) was a covert Israeli military operation from May 24 to 25, 1991, to airlift Ethiopian Jews to Israel. Non-stop flights of 35 Israeli aircraft, including Israeli Air Force C-130s and El Al Boeing 747s, tran ...

, and initially settled in

Tiberias Tiberias ( ; , ; ) is a city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's Four Holy Cities, along with Jerusalem, Heb ...

before moving to a caravan site in kibbutz Hulda. He attended the

Mikveh Israel Mikveh Israel () is a youth village and boarding school in the Tel Aviv District of central Israel, established in 1870. It was the first Jewish agricultural school in what is now Israel and indeed the first modern Jewish settlement in Palestine ...

boarding school. During his national service in 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 ...

, he served in the reconnaissance unit of the

Givati Brigade The 84th "Givati" Brigade () is an Israel Defense Forces infantry brigade formed in 1947. During the 1948 war, it was involved in capturing Palestinian villages in operations ''Hametz'', ''Barak'', and ''Pleshet''. Before Israel's 2005 ...

, reaching the rank of lieutenant. He subsequently studied for a bachelor's degree in law at the College of Management. Yevarkan ran for a place on the

list for the

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

and

2013 Knesset elections Early legislative elections were held in Israel on 22 January 2013 to elect the 120 members of the nineteenth Knesset. Public debate over the Tal Law had nearly led to early elections in 2012, but they were aborted at the last moment after Kadi ...

, but was unsuccessful on both occasions. In the 2013 municipal elections he headed the Ethiopian immigrant-dominated Ahdut (''Unity'') list in

Rehovot Rehovot (, / ) is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel, about south of Tel Aviv. In it had a population of . Etymology Israel Belkind, founder of the Bilu (movement), Bilu movement, proposed the name "Rehovot ...

. In 2016 he founded the

Be'eri Be'eri () is a kibbutz in southern Israel. Located in the north-western Negev desert near the eastern border with the Gaza Strip, it falls under the jurisdiction of Eshkol Regional Council. In it had a population of . During the massacre in ...

Mechina A mechina kdam-tzvait (; "pre-military preparatory", plural mechinot) is an autonomous unit of specialized educational institutions valuing non-formal education and pre-military training in Israel. They are funded and supported by the Ministry ...

. In the build-up to the April 2019 elections, Yevarkan joined the new Telem party. After the party became part of the Blue and White alliance, he was given the thirty-third slot on the joint list, and was subsequently elected to the Knesset as the alliance won 35 seats, and was re-elected in the September 2019 elections. However, prior to the March 2020 elections he was removed from the Blue and White list after threatening to defect to

. He was subsequently given the twentieth slot on the Likud list for the elections, and resigned from the Knesset. He was replaced as an MK by

Yorai Lahav-Hertzanu Yorai Lahav-Hertzanu (; born 5 August 1988) is an Israeli politician. He currently serves as a member of the Knesset for Yesh Atid. Biography Born in Tel Aviv, Lahav-Hertzanu was chair of the Tel Aviv-Yafo Student Council for three years whilst ...

. He returned to the Knesset after the elections, as Likud won thirty-six seats. For the 2021 elections, Yevarkan was placed seventeenth on the

list, and retained his seat in the Knesset, as Likud won thirty seats. However, he lost his seat in the

2022 elections The following elections were scheduled to occur in 2022. The National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections around the world. * 2022 United Nations Security Council election * 2022 national electoral calendar * 2022 local e ...

after being placed 66th on the Likud list.Likud
Central Election Commission

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yevarkan, Gadi 1981 births Living people Black Jewish members of the Knesset Blue and White (political alliance) politicians Deputy ministers of Israel Ethiopian emigrants to Israel Ethiopian Jews Israeli people of Ethiopian-Jewish descent Jewish Israeli politicians Likud politicians People from Rehovot Members of the 21st Knesset (2019) Members of the 22nd Knesset (2019–2020) Members of the 23rd Knesset (2020–2021) Members of the 24th Knesset (2021–2022) Telem (2019 political party) politicians