Aharon Uzan

Aharon Uzan was born in 1924 in Moknine

Uzan was born in 1924 in Moknine, Tunisia. As a young man he belonged to the Betar movement and studied at a college in Sousse. He later moved to France and emigrated to Israel in 1949.

In Israel he received agricultural training and joined Mapai. He helped found moshav Gilat and lived there for the rest of his life, serving as its secretary and treasurer from 1952 to 1959. In 1960 he founded the Negev Moshav Purchasing Company and ran it until 1968.

He entered the Knesset in 1965 for the Alignment and served as Deputy Minister of Agriculture until 1969. From 1970 to 1973 he led the Moshavim Movement. In 1974 he became Minister of Communications, then Minister of Agriculture under Yitzhak Rabin, and held both posts from 1975 until 1977.

As Minister of Agriculture he set up the Green Patrol in 1976 to act against takeovers of state land. In 1981 he founded the Tami party with Aharon Abuhatzira and returned to the Knesset. In 1982 he became Minister of Immigrant Absorption and Minister of Labor and Social Welfare, serving until the 1984 elections.

His son Shlomo was killed in the War of Attrition in 1970, and a synagogue in Gilat bears his name. Uzan died in 2007 and was buried in Gilat.