Yisrael Katz

Yisrael Katz may refer to:

Yisrael Katz (politician born 1927)

Yisrael Katz (Hebrew: ישראל כץ‎, 6 December 1927 – 29 October 2010) was an Israeli scholar, civil servant and politician who served as Minister of Labor and Social Affairs. He was one of the most influential people in Israel in the creation and development of the Israeli welfare state over several decades.

Early life

Born in Vienna in Austria, Katz emigrated to Mandatory Palestine in November 1938 as a child of ten following the Anschluss and the Nazi rise to power. He arrived in Palestine as part of a Youth Aliyah group of children, which were organized with the consent of parents eager to have their children saved from being arrested and deported to Nazi concentration camps. His parents and sister also succeeded in emigrating to Palestine in the summer of 1939, but were soon expelled to Mauritius, where they lived until 1946, when the family was finally reunited. Part of the extended family was killed in the Holocaust.

Katz originally studied agriculture at the Ahava youth village until 1944, while simultaneously through intense self-study, completing his matriculation in an outstanding manner. As a result, he was awarded a scholarship by the British Mandatory Government but chose to study science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1946 until 1947. During the course of his studies, he began working on the treatment of delinquent youth in a poor neighborhood of Jerusalem. On the eve of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, he joined the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) serving in the Intelligence Services.

Yisrael Katz (politician born 1955)

Yisrael Katz (Hebrew: ישראל כץ‎, born 21 September 1955) is an Israeli politician who currently serves as a member of the Knesset for Likud and as Minister of Transportation and Minister of Intelligence and Atomic Energy.

Biography

Born in Ashkelon, Katz earned a BA and an MA at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

He won thirty-fourth place on the Likud-Gesher-Tzomet list for the 1996 elections, but missed out on a place in the Knesset when the alliance won only 32 seats. However, he entered the Knesset in November 1998 as a replacement for Ehud Olmert. He was re-elected in 1999 and 2003, and was appointed Minister of Agriculture in Ariel Sharon's government in 2003. Katz left the cabinet in January 2006 after the Likud-Kadima split, and was re-elected in the 2006 elections.

In 2007 the Israel Police recommended indicting Katz on charges of fraud and breach of trust linked to political appointments at the Ministry of Agriculture during his tenure as minister.