Chaim Josef Zadok

Haim Zadok as Deputy Attorney General (1951)

Chaim Josef Zadok ( Hebrew חיים יוסף צדוק; * October 2, 1913 in Rawa-Ruska ; † August 15, 2002 ) was an Israeli politician , Zionist and minister .

Life

Promotion to MP and Minister

After attending school, Zadok began studying philosophy and Jewish studies at the University of Warsaw and was already a member of the Polish Zionist youth organization “Gordonia” and the Union of Workers of Zion ( Poalei Tzion ). After resettlement in the under League of Nations mandate standing Palestine in 1935, a study of graduated law at the Law School of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on an activity followed as a lawyer after its completion. At the same time, they were already members of the Hagana and the Jewish Settlement Police . During the Palestine War of 1948, he joined the armed forces as a lawyer in the Office of the Chief Military Prosecutor.

After the establishment of the State of Israel, he worked from 1949 to 1952 as Deputy Attorney General Yaakov Shimshon Shapira and Chaim Cohn . After working again as a lawyer and founding the law firm Haim Zadok & Co. Advocates, his political career began on January 28, 1959 with the first election as a member of the Knesset , in which he defended the interests of the Knesset until his resignation on January 2, 1978 Mapai and then from 1968 the successor party Awoda represented. As a member of parliament, he was also temporarily chairman of the main committee (House Committee) and later chairman of the subcommittee on fundamental rights and then chairman of the influential committee on foreign affairs and defense.

The first appointment to the cabinet as minister took place on May 25, 1965 by Prime Minister Levi Eschkol as Minister for Trade and Industry, an office which he held until November 22, 1966. In addition, Zadok was development minister from May 31, 1965 to January 12, 1966.

In the governments of Golda Meir and Yitzchak Rabin , he was not only Minister of Justice from March 10, 1974 to June 20, 1977 , but also from June 30 to October 29, 1974 and then again from January 16 to June 20 1977 Israel's first minister of religion.

Meir Shamgar was appointed Supreme Court Justice and Aharon Barak was appointed Attorney General during his time as Justice Minister . These two important advisers brought about decisive reforms of basic rights, basic military rights and state economic law. Both Shamgar and Barak were later presidents of the Supreme Court and thus significantly shaped Israeli law during their successive terms there from 1983 to 2006. Towards the end of his term of office as Minister of Justice, the implementation of the binding criminal procedure code and the adoption and introduction of a new criminal law took place. On the other hand, the term of office in the Justice Ministry was also due to investigations against leading figures in business and politics and the resulting Yadlin affair, the dollar account affair around Prime Minister Rabin and his wife Leah Rabin as well as the suicide of Housing Minister Avraham Ofer in the wake of the Yadlin affair shaped. Despite attacks from the Avoda, Zadok stood by Attorney General Barak when Barak decided to bring charges after the investigation. Although he was against settlement measures, he saw the legal admissibility of placing settlers in military camps as a compromise. Finally, he was one of the initiators of the dismissal of the ministers of the National Religious Party (Mafdal) for Interior ( Josef Burg ), Religion (Jitzchak Raphael) and Welfare (Zevulon Hammer) by Prime Minister Rabin on December 22, 1976, which ultimately came to an end contributed to the Rabin government by defeat in the May 17, 1977 Knesset elections and the loss of 18 seats there.

In the film adaptation of Operation Entebbe , a hostage rescue by the special unit Sayeret Matkal of the Israeli military intelligence service Aman on the night of July 3 and the early morning of July 4, 1976 at Entebbe airport in Uganda , he was played by the American actor George O. Petrie played.

Activities after leaving politics

After leaving the cabinet and parliament, he was appointed professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1978 to 1980 and then continued to work as a lawyer. However, he refused to accept public office in addition to his legal work. However, he called for the so-called Bus 300 affair , in which two Palestinian buskid nappers were probably killed by employees of the domestic secret service Schin Bet . In particular, he spoke out against pardons before the end of the process. He was also against pardons for members of the Gush Emunim underground movement and against the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip . Instead, negotiations with the Palestinians were made from him. After all, he was a commentator for TIME magazine during the investigation into then Defense Minister Ariel Sharon following the Sabra and Shatila massacre in 1982.

Zadok was eventually a member of several public commissions such as the Shamgar Commission, which reinterpreted the role and appointment of the Attorney General. In 1991 he was one of the founders of the Israel Democracy Institute, whose first chairman he also became. This also honored him with the Israel Democracy Institute Award in 2002. In addition, he was President of the Press Council in 1993 and in this position represented liberal opinions against the government in interventions against the free press . In 1999 there was finally another unsuccessful candidacy for the Knesset as the last candidate on the list of candidates for the party alliance Ein Israel (Yisrael Ahat).

On August 15, 2002, he died of a heart attack while visiting Germany at the age of 88 .

Publications

• "Seder Shilton VeMishpat", 1971 (co-editor Abraham Ben Naftali)
• "Issues in Government in Israel", 1978

literature

• Chaim Zadok , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 22/1974 from May 20, 1974, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)

Web links

• Homepage of the Knesset
• Homepage of the Israel Democracy Institute
• Harris, Ron / Nitzan, Tevet: "The Haim Zadok Book", 2002

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Homepage of the law firm Haim Zadok & Co. Advocates ( Memento of the original dated February 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ Cast "Raid on Entebbe - ... who know no mercy", 1977
3. ^ "Of Meaning and Malice", TIME-MAGAZINE June 24, 2001
4. ↑ "The Media in an Age of Social Polarization", speech April 2, 1998 ( Memento of the original from June 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ "RABIN'S MURDERER. He has no regrets", SPIEGEL ONLINE November 7, 2000