Ruchama Avraham

Avraham Balila 2008

Ruchama Avraham Balila ( Hebrew רוחמה אברהם בלילא; Born January 29, 1964 in Rishon LeZion ) is an Israeli politician who served as a Knesset member of Likud and Kadima from 2003 to 2013. She was Deputy Interior Minister , Minister for Tourism and Minister without Portfolio , responsible for relations with the Knesset.

Life

The politician was born as the daughter of Sephardic immigrants from Turkey. After completing her military service, she earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Bar-Ilan University .

In the 2003 Knesset elections she was elected to the Knesset at number 17 on the Likud's electoral list . At first she worked as a member of the committees of finance and economics, she was also active in the committees that campaigned for the emancipation and equality of women and for the improvement of the rights of guest workers. On March 30, 2005, she was appointed Deputy Minister for Internal Affairs ; she held this office until May 4, 2006.

In 2005 she moved to Kadima . With position 6 on Kadima's electoral list in the 2006 Knesset elections, she was re-elected. In the same year, however, an investigation began into a bribery affair allegedly involving Avraham and Eli Aflalo . They were charged with paying them a trip of $ 6,800 plus $ 4,388 in expenses from the parastatal agricultural export company Agrexco . Following the trip, Avraham called a special meeting of the Knesset's interior committee, to which she was not a member, and in which Agrexco negotiated compensation for the high export taxes. In 2008 she was released on bail; no charges were brought in the absence of evidence. Nevertheless, the attorney general Menachem Masus rated Avrahams behavior as "unworthy, unclean, violation of the rules of conduct of the Knesset and on the verge of criminal offense".

In a cabinet reshuffle in July 2007, she was appointed Minister without Portfolio responsible for relations with the Knesset. In July 2008 she became Minister of Tourism . In the 2009 elections, she was number 8 on Kadima's electoral list and was re-elected. In October 2012, she announced that she would withdraw from politics.

She is the mother of two children, speaks Ivrith , Ladino and English.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ MK Ruhama Avraham investigated for bribery ( Memento of the original of July 24, 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. Haaretz, October 2, 2006 
2. ↑ Police grill minister over junket funded by agricultural firm ( Memento of the original from October 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Haaretz, March 28, 2008 
3. ↑ Avraham escaping trial in Agrexco case  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Haaretz  

Web links

• Ruhama Avraham on the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs website