Ehud Olmert

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Ehud Olmert, before 2010

Ehud Olmert ( Hebrew אהוד אולמרט; Born September 30, 1945 in Binjamina ) is an Israeli politician ( Kadima ). He was Prime Minister of Israel from April 2006 to March 2009 . He was in office from the evening of January 4, 2006 after Ariel Sharon suffered a severe stroke . On April 11, 2006, Sharon was formally declared incapable of government . From January 18, 2008 to April 13, 2008, Olmert was also Minister for Strategic Affairs .

On September 21, 2008, Olmert announced his resignation from the office of Prime Minister, which he had already announced in July. He remained in office until the formation of a new government under Benjamin Netanyahu on March 31, 2009 and led a transitional government. In early July 2012, he was found guilty of infidelity by a Tel Aviv court. It was the first time a former Israeli head of government had been convicted. The judgment was finally confirmed in December 2015. He was sentenced to 27 months in prison. After 16 months, he was released early in July 2017.

Life

Olmert comes from a Russian immigrant family. After the First World War , his father Mordechai Olmert fled the persecution in civil war-torn Russia to Harbin , China , which was then the largest gathering of Jewish people in the Far East. At the age of 16 he was the founder of the local section of a youth group of the Betar there . In Harbin he also met his future wife Bella Vugmann . In 1930 the family left China and went to the Netherlands , where Mordechai Olmert studied agricultural science. In 1933 the couple migrated to what was then the British Mandate of Palestine . Olmert's father served in the Israeli armed forces as an officer in an infantry combat unit and was a military correspondent for the army journal BaMachane . Olmert himself served in the Golani Brigade and was assigned to Ariel Sharon's staff as a military correspondent during the Yom Kippur War . Ehud Olmert at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with degrees in psychology , philosophy and law graduates . He practiced as a lawyer .

Olmert is married to the artist Aliza Olmert , who is close to the Israeli peace movement, and has four children. He speaks Hebrew and English.

On October 29, 2007, Ehud Olmert announced in Jerusalem that he had prostate cancer . Worsening was noted in April 2009 and required immediate treatment.

politics

Olmert was first elected to the eighth Knesset for Likud in 1973 , making him the youngest member of parliament in Israel at the age of 28. He was re-elected seven times in a row. He was represented on the Rules of Procedure, Constitutional, Justice, State Control, Foreign / Defense, Finance, Education / Culture and Interior / Environment Committee. He served his party as treasurer . In 1999, Olmert challenged Ariel Sharon as party leader of the Likud, but failed in the party elections. Because many Likud members resented him, he barely moved into parliament on one of the lower list places.

In 1981–1988, Olmert was the senior member of the Knesset with the third seniority on the prestigious Foreign and Security Committee. During his career as a member of the Knesset, he was minister without a portfolio in the cabinet of Yitzhak Shamir (12th Knesset / 23rd government) responsible for minorities, later he became minister of health (24th government). His time as Minister of Health is remembered because of the far-reaching reforms of the health system that he initiated.

Mayor of Jerusalem

In November 1993, Olmert beat his legendary rival Teddy Kollek and became mayor of Jerusalem with a majority of 60% . During his first term in office, the status of Jerusalem came to the fore with the opening of the Har Choma neighborhood and an ancient tunnel under the Temple Mount. At that time, Olmert advocated the position of Greater Israel, including the integrity of all of Jerusalem under Israeli control, and rejected any concession to the Palestinians who claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state. This ideological orientation was also reflected in his politics. He consistently implemented a tough policy of expatriation of Palestinians from the eastern part of the city. Olmert claims to have taken on many initiatives and improvements in large city projects. During his nine years in office, Olmert strove to develop and improve the urban education system, the largest and most expensive in all of Israel. In addition, the infrastructure was improved with great material expenditure.

Ehud Olmert resigned his Knesset mandate in November 1998 after the introduction of a law prohibiting members of the Knesset from holding public office at the same time - he had been re-elected as Mayor of Jerusalem with a majority of 62%. After his re-election to the Knesset, he gave up his office as mayor in February 2003.

Industry and Trade Minister and Deputy Prime Minister

In February 2003 Ehud Olmert was appointed Minister of Industry and Commerce and Deputy Prime Minister (16th Knesset, 30th government). From September 29, 2003 he was also Minister of Communications. In this function he supported the Sharon Plan to withdraw from parts of the occupied territories . Like Sharon, he moved away from the ideology of a Greater Israel and advocated the Israeli state unilaterally defining its borders. Olmert was considered a close confidante of Ariel Sharon and was seen as his mouthpiece.

On August 7, 2005, after Netanyahu's resignation, he also took over the management of the Ministry of Finance. After Sharon founded the Kadima party, Olmert from Likud also switched to this party. On January 16, 2006, party delegates elected Olmert as chairman of the Kadima.

Prime Minister

Olmert in the Oval Office with US President Bush on May 23, 2006

After Ariel Sharon's severe stroke on January 4, 2006, Olmert initially took over the post of prime minister. Although he does not have Sharon’s paternal image and is occasionally accused of arrogance, he won the 2006 elections and was confirmed as prime minister. On election evening he said to supporters in Jerusalem: I am ready to give up the dream of a Greater Israel . This meant that he wanted to finally determine Israel's borders by 2010 without cooperation with the Palestinians, including by abandoning settlements in the West Bank , which would have affected around a third of the 240,000 settlers. After since the election of Hamas in the Palestinian territories , the situation had escalate there civil war similar Olmert offered - for one year - negotiations on which his so-called convergence plan should be the basis. In it the Palestinians were offered their own state and a. against the approval of the great loss of territory, which seemed predetermined by the unilateral definition of the border by the border fence erected by Israel and the expansion of some settlements. During a state visit to Germany, Olmert emphasized that Israel must remain defensive in the face of Jewish history and the Holocaust :

“Woe to the weak and the defenseless. Woe to him who does not believe the threats. Woe to the indifferent who does not prepare to face the dangers. "

Winograd Commission

After the end of the Lebanon War , the Winograd Commission was set up in Israel . She checked what had happened in the offensive and accused Olmert of "serious failure" in a report. The opposition then demanded his resignation as prime minister, which was immediately rejected. It is "impossible to look for the blame on just one person".

Corruption allegations and conviction

In October 2007, Olmert was questioned by police about his role in the 2005 sale of the Israeli bank Leumi , and the case was dropped shortly thereafter.

In 2008, Olmert was investigated on suspicion of corruption . It was to be clarified whether, during his time as Minister of Commerce and Industry (from 2003 to 2005), he had helped people to higher offices and preferred a friend through his ministry's investment department. Another case investigated the purchase of a house in a posh neighborhood in Jerusalem for an unusually low price. Olmert's confidants said the information was deliberately disseminated by members of the opposition in order to harm the Middle East peace process.

At the beginning of May 2008, the allegation was also made known that the American businessman Morris Talansky should have paid Olmert bribes . Olmert denied the accusation in a press conference: "I look each of you in the eye and say that I have never put a bribe and never a single agora [smallest Israeli currency unit] into my own pocket." He has donations from Talansky that were handled correctly. Olmert also stated that he never received bribes. In the event of charges against him, he announced that he would resign from his post as prime minister . Because of the new allegations, three members of the Gil pensioners' party resigned from the coalition.

After further details about Talansky's payments became known in late May 2008, Defense Minister Ehud Barak called on Olmert to resign. Otherwise, the labor party Avoda, led by Barak, will leave the coalition government, causing Olmert to lose the majority in parliament. The final break in the coalition was averted at the end of June 2008 when Olmert announced his resignation as party leader of the Kadima in September 2008. The Labor Party then declared that it would not agree to a motion brought in by the opposition to dissolve the Knesset . On July 30, 2008, Olmert announced that he would not run again for the Kadima chairmanship. On September 21, 2008, he resigned from the office of Prime Minister. He remained in office until the successor government was formed. An early election took place on February 10, 2009. After that, Benjamin Netanyahu was able to form a government, he was sworn in as Prime Minister on March 31, 2009.

On August 30, 2009, Olmert was charged by the Jerusalem prosecutor's office with three cases of corruption. Among other things, he was charged with illegally accepting donations as well as double billing of travel expenses and preferring business partners. On September 25, 2009, the trial began in the Jerusalem District Court.

At the beginning of July 2012, the court acquitted him on two of the three points; on one count he was found guilty of infidelity . The court considered it proven that Olmert had obtained funding for a construction project in 2002. This was administered by his friend and confidante Uri Messer . He was acquitted on the other two charges - accepting payments from a US businessman in the amount of US $ 600,000 and miscalculated travel expenses to charities.

He received a one-year suspended sentence and a fine of the equivalent of 15,000 euros. Another corruption trial against Olmert over the Holyland affair ended on March 31, 2014. On May 13, 2014 a district court in Tel Aviv set the sentence to six years in prison. Olmert can appeal the judgment to the Supreme Court. In addition, Ehud Olmert was sentenced to a fine of the equivalent of 200,000 euros.

In another trial in March 2015, Olmert was convicted of unauthorized acceptance of money because he had not reported it as required, as well as of fraud and breach of trust. In May 2015, he was sentenced to eight months in prison, an additional eight months' probation and a US $ 25,000 fine. Olmert had the money from Talansky, who said he had not received anything in return for the money. The court found it proven that Olmert had bought the loyalty of his office manager Shula Zaken with part of the money. He is said to have used the rest of the money for himself personally. Nevertheless, Zaken became a witness for the prosecution and presented an appointment calendar and sound recordings that proved that Olmert had accepted the money. Numerous celebrities such as the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the former head of the Israeli secret service Mossad Meir Dagan had testified for Olmert in the trial. The court recognized Olmert's services for Israel, but still called his behavior unacceptable. A 45 day postponement has been set for the Supreme Court to review the judgment . On December 29, 2015, he acquitted him of the allegations of the Holyland affair, but nevertheless sentenced him to an eighteen-month prison term for bribery. The appeal proceedings against the March 2015 conviction have not yet been decided. He began serving his sentence in February 2016. On June 29, 2017, the Parole Board decided to reduce the prison term to 16 months. Olmert was then under conditions released from prison.

Web links

Commons : Ehud Olmert  - collection of images, videos and audio files
 Wikinews: Ehud Olmert  - in the news

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Michael Borgstede: Israel: Ehud Olmert victim of a legal coup? In: The world online. July 10, 2012, accessed July 11, 2012.
  2. ↑ Former Prime Minister Olmert released early from prison. In: Die Zeit online. 2nd July 2017.
  3. ↑ Israel's former head of government Olmert released from prison. In: Spiegel Online . 2nd July 2017.
  4. ↑ After 16 months in prison: Israel's former Prime Minister Olmert released from prison. In: t-online.de . Retrieved July 2, 2017.
  5. ↑ Michael A. Sommers: Ehud Olmert - Prime Minister of Israel. Read How You Want, 2012, ISBN 978-1-4270-9211-3 , pp. 4 and 5.
  6. ↑ Roni Sofer: Olmert's cancerous condition deteriorating. In: ynetnews.com . Retrieved July 2, 2017.
  7. ↑ Focus news magazine, Issue 18/07, p 205
  8. ↑ Detlef David Kauschke: Ehud Olmert - words with explosive power
  9. ↑ Wiebke Fleig: Olmert stays - for the time being. In: Die Zeit online. April 30, 2007. Retrieved July 3, 2017.
  10. ^ Olmert questioned about bank sale. In: focus.de . October 9, 2007.
  11. ^ News blackout until Sunday on the Olmert affair. In: The world online. May 7, 2008.
  12. ^ Israel: Prime Minister Olmert suspected of corruption. In: The press online. May 9, 2008.
  13. ↑ Tagesschau : Barak calls on Olmert to resign ( memento from February 2, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) from May 28, 2008.
  14. ↑ Olmert averts new elections. In: The press online. June 25, 2008.
  15. ↑ Israel's Prime Minister Olmert announces withdrawal. In: Spiegel online. July 30, 2008. Retrieved July 2, 2017.
  16. ↑ Israel's ex-Prime Minister Olmert indicted. In: Rhein-Zeitung online. August 30, 2009, Retrieved July 2, 2017 (archive version).
  17. ↑ Olmert at the bar of the court. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung online. September 25, 2009. Retrieved September 25, 2009.
  18. ↑ Ehud Olmert: Israel's ex-prime minister convicted of corruption. In: Spiegel Online . July 10, 2012, accessed July 10, 2012.
  19. ↑ Hans-Christian Rößler: Olmert convicted of bribery. In: faz.net . March 31, 2014, accessed July 2, 2017.
  20. ↑ Six years in prison for Olmert. In: tagesschau.de . Retrieved May 13, 2014.
  21. ↑ Israel's ex-head of government has to go behind bars. In: tz.de. May 13, 2014, accessed May 13, 2014.
  22. ^ Former Israeli leader Ehud Olmert jailed for eight months for corruption. In: The Guardian online. May 25, 2015, accessed May 25, 2015.
  23. ↑ 18 months imprisonment for former Prime Minister Olmert. In: faz.net. December 29, 2015.
  24. ^ Corruption in Israel: Former Prime Minister Olmert goes to prison. In: Stuttgarter Zeitung online. February 15, 2016, accessed February 15, 2016 .
  25. ↑ Olmert released from prison. In: tagesschau.de . 2nd July 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Olmert, Ehud
ALTERNATIVE NAMES אהוד אולמרט (Hebrew)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israeli politician (Premier 2006-2009)
DATE OF BIRTH September 30, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Binjamina , Israel