Amir Peretz was born in Boujad, in the Khourigba Province (Middle Atlas mountain region) of Morocco and came to Israel in 1956 as a small child, with his family, in the first wave of post-independence Aliyah from Morocco.
His family was settled – as were most new immigrants - in Israel's periphery: they lived in the new southern town of Sderot, where he grew up and studied. Although the family arrived in Israel with the capital to launch their own business, it unfortunately failed and Amir's parents became wage earners at local factories, although they encouraged their children towards academic achievement. The small development towns at that time, however, were unable to provide the full high school education that Amir sought, and – already involved in the labor movement – he was able to complete the final year at the Shaar Hanegev Regional High School. His brothers were also academically successful; one of them later fell during military service in the IDF.
In the IDF (1970), Amir Peretz rose to the rank of captain in the Paratroopers, but his legs were shattered in a training accident (1974) and he was later discharged, to a lengthy convalescence. While many would have made concessions for his injury, Peretz became actively involved in the labor movement and refused to compromise on his ideals, or his goals. This was his formative political period, and he would campaign for workers' wage rights, as well as for peace. He also followed some academic courses at Bet Berl College, which is a Labor Movement Higher Education institution, and met his wife, Ahlama Zarhiani. After his two-year convalescence, still crippled, he nevertheless returned to the army for a short period, after which he became a horticulturist on a moshav near Sderot.
This quiet interlude lasted a number of years, during which Peretz remained involved socially and politically in Sderot, and it was to Sderot he returned to live, in order enter politics, at the request of a local political list (not precisely a political party, per se; this is how local elections are run in Israel). Coincidentally, this is the same year that peace lobbyist Emil Grunzweig was murdered at a Peace Now demonstration in Jerusalem (1983); Peretz knew him from his convalescence at Kibbutz Revivim, when he had joined the lobby and become an active participant in their programs.
Amir Peretz won the local election (1983) and became Head of Sderot Local Council; he began to make changes happen in Sderot, in an attempt to address issues of education, employment, and urban investment. While he emerged into the mainstream on the local scene, he rose quite rapidly to national fame as the southern figure who made headlines - and has continued to do so - surprising all those around him with his his consistent ability to focus and compete with established figures at every level, as well as his excellent sense of timing.
In many ways, Amir Peretz represents facets of life in Israel and the changes in Israeli society, which strike a chord in different sectors of the population: his North African origins; the hebraicization of his name from Armand to Amram, then Amiram and eventually Amir; his life in the periphery of a development town and modest upbringing; his army service in the field; his invalidity; the issues related to being part of a bereaved family with the loss of one brother; his connection to agriculture; and his focus on local needs.
Throughout his professional life, with each remarkable success he has notched up, Peretz appears conscious that he is considered a "new boy", that he is labeled as coming from a struggling development town, and from a Moroccan family and community, but his response is usually to indicate that his platform is to speak for all the disadvantaged.
Amir Peretz was invited by the Labor Alignment/Party to move from local to national politics and was first elected to the 12th Knesset (1988), and has been re-elected in each successive Election. He was consistently active on Knesset parliamentary committees, although never a government minister.
Still heavily involved with the Labor Movement, he joined forces with MK Haim Ramon to win the Histadrut (Israel Trade Union) elections in 1994, and to contest the established leadership in the organization. Haim Ramon won the Histadrut Chairmanship and introduced some reforms, but ceded the position to Peretz on being appointed Minister of Health (December 1995), following the Rabin assassination. It was therefore Amir Peretz who gave the Histadrut a facelift and marketed it, and its previously low prestige Health Fund, as a new generation product - although there was little tangible reform of the debt-ridden organization as a whole.
In Peretz's first Histadrut Chairmanship tenure, and during his second (2002-2005), he dedicated his time primarily to the concerns of the Histadrut, rather than the Knesset. During the first term, Peretz rapidly became a household name as Israel's Labor Union leader. However, he brought the Histadrut into the forefront of the confrontation with the government, initially over privatization and employment cuts, supporting the powerful public service and governmental workers' committees in education, transport and the power systems, generating havoc in these sectors. Significantly, in the second half of this period, during the 14th Knesset (1998), he withdrew from the Labor Party to form a separate faction, Am Echad (One People), which represented the Labor Union voice in Israeli politics, and he was returned to the 15th & 16th Knesset in the 1999 and 2003 elections. This period also saw the Second Intifada, with recession hitting the Israeli economy badly in all sectors, and substantial cuts in all government services (education, health, welfare). The crossover period was typified by Peretz's campaigns to prevent loss of jobs in failing factories, with moderate success.
During his second term, the wave of strikes noticeably lessened and the focus was more on campaigns to influence public opinion and the decision-makers, while the populations whose campaigns he supported were the disabled, single mothers, local government, and less prominent disadvantaged groups on minimum wages (or less). In the 16th Knesset, the government had meanwhile made drastic economic cutbacks, hitting social benefits severely at a time of mass unemployment and growing poverty; much of Amir Peretz's efforts were directed to ensure wage payment in the deficit-ridden public and local government sector – with limited success. He also campaigned for an improved minimum wage, as well as for a compulsory pension component within it, but little progress made.
Now a powerful and recognized factor on the Israeli political scene, Am Echad was by now being courted by the ruling Likud-based coalition and the Labor Party opposition (which was to join the coalition government to ensure the implementation of the Disengagement Plan). At the same time, the Labor Party, badly shaken by its Knesset seat losses in the 2003 elections, found itself in an ongoing leadership crisis, with numerous challenges to Shimon Peres' leadership. Finally, in mid-2004, Am Echad rejoined the Labor Party as a member of the Labor Party Bureau, but not the government coalition, since he opposed the 2005 state budget, as an expression of the Likud's social and economic policies.
Amir Peretz later won the Israel Labor Party's internal election in November 2005, campaigning against party leader Shimon Peres on a labor-left social justice, anti-poverty, and welfare platform. He immediately pulled the Labor Party out of the coalition, becoming leader of the opposition, a move which led directly to the declaration of an early General Election (2006) and a domino effect of division and leadership contests within the major Israeli political parties. Peretz attracted a series of well-known public figures to the party, some of whom reached the top ten in the internal party primaries. This occurred parallel to and following the departure of several leading personalities from the Labor Party, including Shimon Peres; most joined Ariel Sharon's new, centrist Kadima Party.
Labor joined the Kadima coalition, following the 2006 Elections, and Peretz was appointed Minister of Defense. He was ousted as leader of the Labor Party in June 2007 by Ehud Barak, in a political comeback.
Further References
Below is a wide range of biographical information, together with some articles on Peretz's political position and the implications for both the Labor Party and Israel, as well as some for the purpose of enrichment. Links have been organized by language and category.
ENGLISH
Biography
Knesset biography profile, with date of birth and professional career landmarks
http://www.knesset.gov.il/mk/eng/mk_eng.asp?mk_individual_id_t=105
Personal website
http://www.amirperetz.co.il/English2nd.htm
Professional biography current to 2003, incorporating Knesset website information, written for 2003 Elections http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArtElection.jhtml?itemNo=244271&contrassID=2&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y
Fingertip political biography includes information prior to election to Knesset, Jan 2005
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3019546,00.html
Profile
http://www.laborisrael.org/Peretz%20Profile.htm
Biographical Insights
Lengthy article spans Peretz's home, community and professional life with insights - written prior to Am Echad's merger with the Labor Party and the leadership contest
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=293339&contrassID=2&subContrassID=14&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y
http://www.zionism-israel.com/bio/biography_Amir_Peretz.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amir_Peretz
Labor Party & Issues
Campaign website
http://www.amirperetz.co.il/English3rd.html
Detailed backgrounder towards the vote, Peretz's views and background, social issues, leadership issues, October 2005 http://www.ameinu.net/perspectives/israel2.php?articleid=56 and
http://www.laborisrael.org/Peretz%20Online%20June%2005.htm
The Labour Party leadership, leadership, social and economic policy in Israel
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=9821
Labor Union Issues & Israeli Economy
Interview with Peretz about the Labour Union in Israel and its agenda in Israel, June 2005
http://www.labourstart.org/docs/en/000130.html
Wage payment problems - recent Israel Aircraft Industries strike threat
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1129540616503&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
Related Israel Links
Emil Greenzweig
http://www.adaminstitute.org.il/emil.pdf
IDF
http://www1.idf.il/DOVER/site/homepage.asp?clr=1&sl=EN&id=-8888&force=1
Moshavim and Development towns
http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/concepts/hit5.html
Moshavim – land lease changes
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/670650.html
Financial changes http://web.israelinsider.com/bin/en.jsp?enZone=Views&enDisplay=view&enPage=ViewsPage&enDispWhat=object&enDispWho=Article^l2619
Websites [English]
http://info.jpost.com/C005/Supplements/CafeOleh/kibbutz.html#6
Negev
http://www.jafi.org.il/education/moriya/negev/Introduction.html
Geographical information, map
http://www.negev.org/About/negev_desert.htm
Negev study gateway
http://www.boker.org.il/english/
Settlement, landscapes – albums
http://www.boker.org.il/meida/negev/album/
Development
http://www.negev.org/
Tour photos
http://www.rmerrillphoto.com/israelsnegevdesert/
Sderot
Geographical location, satellite map
http://www.maplandia.com/israel/sederot/
http://www.jafi.org.il/education/ivrit/parasha/rag31english.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sderot
List of JAFI Partnership programs
http://www.partner.org.il/catalog/sderot-index.html
Film Festival at the Cinematheque
http://sff.sapir.ac.il/main_e.htm
Shaar Hanegev
List of JAFI Partnership programs
http://www.partner.org.il/catalog/sderot-index.html
Industry
http://www.sapirim-ip.co.il/frameset.htm
HEBREW
Biography
Knesset career, landmarks, personal details
http://www.knesset.gov.il/mk/heb/mk.asp?mk_individual_id_t=105
Detailed personal and professional biography
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3167090,00.html
Labor Party Leadership
Campaign website
http://www.amirperetz.co.il/index.html
Vision
http://www.amirperetz.co.il/Vision.htm
Winning the leadership
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3167131,00.html
Coverage of the vote and outcomes
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/643454.html
Overview
http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART1/005/891.html
Winning - Peretz's Speech
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3167040,00.html
Previous interview with Peretz on the Labor Party leadership vote and Israel
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3165833,00.html
Political and social implications for the Labour Party
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/643964.html
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=643454&contrassID=1&subContrassID=0&sbSubContrassID=0
Opinion - why Labor needed new leadership
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3167072,00.html
Israeli Elections
Implications for Israel, Elections
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3167058,00.html
Implications for the Israeli economy - investors
http://www.nrg.co.il/online/16/ART1/005/968.html
Interview - insights into political vision
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArtPE.jhtml?contrassID=2&subContrassID=3&sbSubContrassID=0&itemNo=643466
Russian
http://www.amirperetz.co.il/rusit1st.htm
Arabic
http://www.amirperetz.co.il/arbic2nd.htm
Amharic
http://www.amirperetz.co.il/etyop2nd.htm
Related Links about Israel
Development Towns
http://lib.cet.ac.il/Pages/item.asp?item=12800
Geo-political and economic analysis
http://www.boker.org.il/geography/info/israel/meida/settelments/yaffatironitil2005.doc
Emil Greenzweig
http://www.adaminstitute.org.il/emil%20heb.pdf
IDF
http://www1.idf.il/DOVER/site/homepage.asp
Moshavim
Map of Negev Moshavim, with linked information [Hebrew]
http://www.sdotnegev.org.il/moshavim.asp
Negev
Negev study gateway
http://www.boker.org.il/learning/
Negev Net information
http://negev-net.org.il/
Development
http://www.negev.co.il/
Industry
http://www.negev.co.il/seker/c2.html
Botanical garden: plants, photos, map
http://www.benzkotz.dircon.co.uk/web.html
Sderot
http://negev-net.org.il/test_city.ASP?id=33
Map
http://www.cityindex.co.il/city_sys1/city_main.asp?city_id=94
Descriptive tour
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3020466,00.html
http://www.jafi.org.il/education/ivrit/parasha/rag31henbrew.html
http://www.bimkom.org/educationView.asp?projectTypeId=2&projectId=51
Cinematheque
http://www.sderot-cin.org.il/
Film Festival at the Cinematheque
http://sff.sapir.ac.il/open_h.htm
Shaar Hanegev
http://negev-net.org.il/test1.asp?id=7
Map
http://www.makash.ac.il/region/regHP.htm
Academic campus
http://www.makash.ac.il/
Author: Gila Ansell Brauner