Yitzhak Berman

Yitzhak Berman (Hebrew יצחק ברמן; born June 3, 1913 in Berdychiv, Ukraine; † August 4, 2013 ) was an Israeli politician who was briefly Prime Minister and Speaker of the Knesset.

Life

Berman, who in 1920 came through emigration ( Alija ) his parents to Palestine, studied at the Teachers' Training College in Jerusalem, before he worked as a lawyer after studying law at the University of London. In 1939 he as a follower of David Raziel member of the Irgun Tzwa'i Le'umi, a known as Etzel Zionist underground movement was, and was active in their news service. During the Second World War he was in contact with the Allies and served between 1941 and 1945 as an intelligence officer in the British Army.

After the founding of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948, he was taken as a major in the founded on May 31, 1948 Israel Defense Forces and served there until 1950. Subsequently, he was first legal advisor and then to 1954, Director General of the Kaizer - Frazier factory in Haifa. In 1951 he became a member of the Party of the General Zionists, who in 1961 broke up. He then became a member of Herut and 1964 Head of the Secretariat of the Herut of Tel Aviv. Following the unification of the Herut with the Gahal for Likud in 1973 Berman was 1974 Chairman of the National Secretariat of the Likud.

On June 13, 1977 Yitzhak Berman was first elected to the Knesset and represented in it by August 13, 1984, the interests of the Likud. On March 12, 1980, he was finally as Speaker of the Knesset parliament president and held that office until July 20, 1981. At the same time he was temporarily Chairman of the Main Committee of Parliament.

On August 5, 1981 Berman was appointed by Prime Minister Menachem Begin to the Minister of Energy and Infrastructure in the Cabinet. On September 30, 1982, he resigned from his ministerial office, and thus expressed his opposition to the government's stance Begin from. This had initially refused to set up a commission of inquiry concerning the massacre of Sabra and Shatila. Only the pressure of mass protests and the fear that other ministers could follow Berman, Begin prompted to set up the Kahan Commission.

After his resignation from the Likud in 1986, he was founder and Chairman of the Liberal Centre Party before he was among the founders of the Centre Party in 1987. Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu praised Berman in an obituary as " nationalists, Israeli patriot and true Jews ".