Olmert, Ehud

Olmert, Ehud

Ehud Olmert was born in Binyamina, in the south of Haïfa, in the north-west of Israel in 1945. He holds degrees in psychology, philosophy but also law at the Hebrew university of Jerusalem. He served in the Israeli army as an Officer of the Infantry unit, then as a journalist for the Israeli army daily newspaper, before being elected at the Parliament at the age of 28. Ehud Olmert was elected for the first time at the Knesset in 1973. He was reelected seven times in a row. Between 1981 and 1988, he worked for the cabinet of Finances, education and budget. In 1988 he became Minister without Portfolio responsible for minority affairs, afterwards Minister of Health from 1990-1992. In November 1993 he was elected Mayor of Jerusalem, and kept this position for ten years. In 2003, he was called to Ariel Sharon, when the latter was reelected at the head of government. He immediately became his Deputy Prime Minister. He was one of the first ones to recommend the withdrawal of the Gaza strip. In August 2005, Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resigned in order to denounce the Gaza withdrawal plan, which he judged to be “blind in time”. Olmert took his position as Finance Minister. After Ariel Sharon’s decision to leave the Likoud party in November 2005, Olmert followed him along with other former Likoud members to create Kadima, the new centrist party. On 5 January 2006, the day after Sharon’s hospitalization, Olmert was elected interim Prime Minister, a function he exercises along with the function of Finance Minister. On 28 March 2006, the Israeli legislative elections took place. The Kadima party arrived in first position with 28 seats out of the total 120 seats of the Knesset. More or less 20 days before the elections, Olmert had announced his plan to determine the Israeli borders unilaterally.