Background
Yosef (Yossi) Sarid was born in Rehovot, Sarid served in the Artillery Corps and as a Military Correspondent during his national service in the Israel Defense Forces.
journalist politician writer Knesset member
Yosef (Yossi) Sarid was born in Rehovot, Sarid served in the Artillery Corps and as a Military Correspondent during his national service in the Israel Defense Forces.
Bachelor in Literature and Philosophy, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. Master of Arts in Political Science, New School Social Research.
A former Minister of Education and Minister of the Environment, he led Meretz between 1996 and 2003 and served as Leader of the Opposition from 2001 to 2003. Known for his determined moral stance and his willingness to pay the political price for that determination, Sarid was often referred to as Israel"s moral compass. He earned an Master of Arts in political science from New School for Social Research in New New York
He was a resident of Margaliyot in the Upper Galilee.
Sarid was married to Dorit, with whom he had three children. He died on the evening of 4 December 2015 from an apparent heart attack.
Sarid worked as a media aide to Prime Minister Levi Eshkol. He was first elected to the Knesset in 1973 on the Alignment list.
He was re-elected in 1977, 1981 and 1984.
He was re-elected on the Ratz list in 1988. In 1992, Ratz merged with Shinui and Mapam to form Meretz. Sarid was appointed Minister of the Environment, a position he kept when Shimon Peres formed a new government after Rabin"s assassination in 1995.
In 1996, Sarid replaced Aloni as Meretz leader.
Although Sarid had vowed not to join a coalition that included the ultra-Orthodox Shas, Ehud Barak persuaded Sarid to join the government, making him Minister of Education. Sarid explained the breaking of his vow in the need to promote the peace process.
However, in 2000 Sarid resigned from the government and Meretz quit the coalition after failing to agree on authority to be given for Shas deputy minister of education. In the 2003 elections Meretz was reduced to 6 seats, after which Sarid resigned as party leader, to be replaced by Yossi Beilin.
Sarid wrote a weekly column for Haaretz newspaper.
After the Alignment agreed to join a national unity government with Likud in 1984, Sarid left the party on 22 October to join Shulamit Aloni"s Ratz.
He served as a member of the Knesset for the Alignment, Ratz and Meretz between 1974 and 2006. He remained a member of the Knesset until the 2006 elections, when Meretz was reduced to 5 seats, after which he retired from politics, a plan he had announced the previous year.
Married; 3 children.