Amram Mitzna

Amram Mitzna (Hebrew עמרם מצנע, also Mizna; born February 20, 1945 in the kibbutz Dowrat ) is an Israeli politician of German descent. In 2003 he was Minister presidential candidate of the Israeli Labor Party Avodah.

Amram Mitzna studied geography and political science before he joined the Israeli army in 1963. In the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War, he was wounded. For his exemplary behavior as a tank officer in 1967, he received an award.

In September 1982, he wrote a letter to the then Chief of Staff, in which he described his loss of confidence in Minister of Defense Ariel Sharon because of his behavior during the invasion of Lebanon. Then Sharon demanded his dismissal, however, was averted by the mediation of Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

At the beginning of the first intifada Mitzna served as commander of the Central Command for the occupied territories. In 1990 he became head of the Planning Division of the Israeli army. In 1993, he stepped out as a major general of the army, because he saw no chance of being promoted to Chief of Staff.

In November 1993, Mitzna mayor of Haifa, after he had beaten his opponent Aryeh Gurel. The election to a second term, he could win. In his two terms of office he governed in a grand coalition with the Likud.

As mayor promoted Mitzna construction projects of entrepreneurs and investors by facilitating the statutory planning process. This approach met with strong opposition from environmental organizations.

Mitzna had during his term good relations with all population groups, also to Arabs, Russian immigrants and religious Jews; at the same time he did not hesitate to confront the ultra-orthodox Jews.

In August 2002 Mitzna announced his candidacy for the presidency of the Labor Party; he won the election. Subsequently, he joined the 16th Knesset elections in 2003 for the office of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon against, but was defeated him.

In 2005, Mitzna retired from the Knesset, while he was mayor of Jeroham, a small town in the Negev, offered. This happened after the Interior Minister the incumbent mayor Jeroham Baruch Elmakayes, suspended due to poor financial management. Mitzna role consists primarily to rehabilitate the small town financially. Some critics appreciate this very bold step and compare Mitzna with the first Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben- Gurion, who retired from politics in order to move to Sde Boker in the Negev desert.