Shlomo Benizri

Schlomo Benizri, 1997

Schlomo Benizri ( Hebrew שְׁלֹמֹה בֵּנִיזְרִי; Born February 7, 1961 in Haifa , Israel ) is an Israeli politician and member of the Shas party. He represented Schas in the Knesset from 1992 to 2008; he was, among other things, Deputy Minister of Health , Minister of Health and Minister of Welfare and Social Services in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Convicted of taking bribes, breach of trust, dating to commit a crime together and avoiding punishment, he served a 4-year prison term.

Life

Benizri attended Comprehensive High School in Nescher . He then received at the ”Or ha_Chaim” ( Hebrew אוֹר החַיִּים; lit. light of life) Talmud University in Jerusalem its rabbinical ordination . Afterwards he was director of the Talmud University and worked as a lecturer in the field of Jewish studies . In the 1992 elections he was a candidate for the Shas , was elected and was a member of the Knesset for the first time; first he was active as parliamentary group chairman of the Shas. He was re-elected after the 1996 elections and was appointed Deputy Minister of Health in the Benjamin Netanyahu government on August 13, 1996 , serving until July 6, 1999. He was re-elected in 1999; he was previously number 5 on the electoral list of the Shas, and was appointed Minister of Health in the government of Ehud Barak on 6 July 1999 . He held this office until Schas left the government coalition on July 11, 2000. After Ariel Sharon formed a government in 2001, Benizri returned to the cabinet on March 7, 2001 as Minister of Welfare and Social Services . When Schas withdrew from the coalition on May 23, 2002, he had to give up his office on short notice, and Ariel Sharon took over the office of outgoing minister as prime minister. When Shas returned to the ruling coalition on June 3, 2002, Benizri was again minister and held this post until the start of the elections on February 28, 2003. In the 2003 elections, he was number 2 on Schas's electoral list and was re-elected. For the Israeli elections in 2006 he came in 6th on the electoral list.

Despite being confirmed in his mandate, the day after the elections, March 29, 2006, the prosecution charged him with taking bribes and breach of trust. The decision not to prosecute Benizri until after the elections had been made long before that by the prosecutor Menachem Masus . On April 1, 2008, he was found guilty of taking bribes , betrayal of secrets, dating to jointly commit a crime and thwarting punishment for receiving gifts worth millions of shekels from his friend, general contractor Moshe Sela, in exchange for betraying internal information . For example, Benizri passed on confidential information about migrant workers who were likely to be allowed to immigrate to Israel to the general contractor.

On April 27, 2008, a district court sentenced him to 18 months in prison and found his actions morally reprehensible. He withdrew from the Knesset that same day and was replaced by Masor Bachaina . Both Benizri and the prosecutor appealed the decision. On June 24, 2009, the Supreme Court overturned the decision and increased the sentence to four years.

The Shas Nissim Ze'ev Knesset member said: “He is a victim of the system that puts the fate of Benizri in the hands of elitist judges who only pursue their own ends but ignore the good things that Benizri has done. I have no doubt that an American jury would have treated him better. We need our own jury made up of our own. " And Benizri's brother, Rabbi David Benizri, stated that “a conspiracy of high-ranking homosexuals was behind the Supreme Court's decision to drastically increase the prison term”. Benizri began his sentence on September 1, 2009 in the religious section of Ma'asijahu Prison ( Hebrew בֵּית סוֹהֵר מַעֲשֽׂיָהוּ) in Ramla . Former President Moshe Katzav has been the roommate of his prison cell since December 7, 2011 .

Controversy

In 1998, Benizri demanded that Dana International withdraw from the Eurovision Song Contest , which she eventually won. He remarked: "The Eurovision Song Contest interests me as little as the weather in Antarctica, but as the son of the Jewish people, I am insulted by the [Dana International Transsexuality]."

In 2001, he was charged with racism after he declared, "I don't understand why a restaurant needs a slit eye to serve me a dish."

In the 2004 controversy surrounding The Passion of the Christ , several Shas MPs demanded that the film be banned from showing on grounds of anti-Semitism , Benizri objected, stating that "the Jews executed Jesus" allegedly because the Sanhedrin tradition calls for the death penalty would have. The death of Jesus is an internal Jewish matter because it is about a yeshiva student who left Judaism and the Sanhedrin condemned him to death.

In 2008, Benizri stated that several earthquakes in the region were a sign from God against Israel's tolerance of gays.

Web links

• Shlomo Benizri. In: Knesset Members. Knesset , accessed March 26, 2014 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Ettinger, Yair, Lis, Jonathan and Azoulay, Yuval: Rivlin on Hirchson, Benizri: This is a sad day for the Knesset . In: Haaretz . September 1, 2009. Retrieved January 12, 2012.
2. ↑ Parties and Lists ( Memento April 18, 2001 in the Internet Archive ) The Jerusalem Post
3. ^ Candidates for the 16th Knesset Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
4. ^ List of Candidates: Shas Knesset website
5. ↑ Izenberg, Dan: Benizri jail term Increased to 4 years term . In: The Jerusalem Post , June 24, 2008. Archived from the original on May 26, 2012 Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .  
6. ^ Zino, Aviram: Court sentences Shas MK Benizri to 18-month term . In: Ynetnews , April 28, 2008. 
7. ↑ Sela, Neta: Benizri Will Go to Prison, Without "He is Innocent" Song . In: Ynet , April 8, 2008. 
8. ↑ Benizri's punishment extended: Will serve 4 years in prison ( Hebrew ) In: Ynetnews . June 24, 2009. Retrieved January 12, 2012.
9. ^ Hoffman, Gil and Stoil, Rebecca Anna: Shas backs Benizri, Kadima distances itself from Hirchson . In: The Jerusalem Post . June 25, 2009. Archived from the original on July 9, 2012. 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. Retrieved January 12, 2012. 
10. ↑ Edelson, Daniel: Benizri's brother: Gay elite behind harsh sentence . In: YNetnews . June 24, 2009. Retrieved January 12, 2012.
11. ↑ Shine Field, Mordechai: What Euro Vision Teaches Us About Israel . In: Jewcy.com . June 10, 2008. Retrieved January 12, 2012.
12. ↑ Larry Derfner: They serve, suffer and still root for us . In: The Jerusalem Post , July 11, 2002. Archived from the original on April 26, 2003. Retrieved January 13, 2012. 
13. ↑ Shuman, Ellis: Anti-Semitism: One Shas MK says ban "Passion", another says "Jews did kill Jesus" . In: israelinsider . February 26, 2004. Archived from the original on March 5, 2008. Retrieved June 30, 2008.
14. ↑ Israeli MP blames quakes on gays . In: BBC News . February 20, 2008. Retrieved January 12, 2012.