This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Number 57 (talk | contribs) at 14:16, 27 December 2007 (Various fixes). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 14:16, 27 December 2007 by Number 57 (talk | contribs) (Various fixes)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Prof. Shlomo Ben-Ami (Template:Lang-he, born 17 July 1943) is an Israeli diplomat, politician and historian.
Biography
Ben-Ami was born in Tangier, Morocco to Sephardic Jewish parents. He immigrated to Israel in 1955.
He was educated at Tel Aviv University and Oxford University from which he received a Ph.D. in History. He was a historian at Tel Aviv University from the mid-1970s, serving as head of the School of History from 1982 to 1986. His initial field of study was Spanish history, publishing several books on the Franco regime, but later turned to the history of Israel and the Middle East. From 1987 until 1991, before he entered politics, he was Israel's ambassador to Spain. In 1996 he was elected to the Knesset on Labour's list.
When the One Israel-led government of Ehud Barak took office in July 1999, Ben-Ami became the Minister of Internal Security. In August 2000, when David Levy resigned as Foreign Minister during talks with Palestinian leaders in the United States, Barak designated Ben-Ami to be the acting Foreign Minister and he was officially appointed to the role in November 2000. Meanwhile, the Or Commission held him responsible for the behavior of security forces during the October 2000 riots in which 12 Israeli Arabs and one Palestinian were killed by Israeli police, in his capacity as Security Minister, and he was disqualified from serving in the position in the future. However, Ben-Ami was not considered to be a hard-liner in Israeli relations with the Palestinians and during his time in the Barak government, he was a political rival of Shimon Peres.
Ben-Ami remained Foreign Minister and Security Minister until March 2001, when, having won elections, Ariel Sharon took over from Barak. Ben-Ami refused to serve in the Sharon government and resigned from the Knesset in August 2002.
Ben-Ami is currently Vice-President of the Toledo International Centre for Peace (TICpax), which, according to its mission statement, "seeks to contribute to the prevention and resolution of violent or potentially violent international or intranational conflicts and to the consolidation of peace, within a framework of respect and promotion of Human Rights and democratic values."
Bibliography
- The Origins of the Second Republic in Spain (1978)
- Fascism from Above (1978)
- Spain between Dictatorship and Democracy (1980)
- Anatomia de una Transicion (1990)
- Italy between Liberalism and Fascism (1986)
- Quel avenir pour Israël? , (Hachette Littérature 2002), ISBN 2-01-279104-2. Template:Fr icon
- Scars of war, wounds of peace : the Israeli-Arab tragedy (Oxford University Press 2006), ISBN 0195181581 .
External links
- Shlomo Ben-Ami on the Knesset website
- The Rise and Fall of the Oslo Process. University of Utah lecture, March 2, 2004.
- Debate with Norman Finkelstein. Democracy Now, February 14, 2006.
- Toledo International Centre for Peace - TICpax
| Preceded byAvigdor Kahalani | Minister of Internal Security 1999–2001 |
Succeeded byUzi Landau |
| Preceded byDavid Levy | Foreign Minister of Israel 2000–2001 |
Succeeded byShimon Peres |
Foreign affairs ministers of Israel  | ||
|---|---|---|
|  | |