Meir Avizohar

Meir Avizohar was born in 1923 in Jerusalem

Meir Avizohar was born in Jerusalem in 1923. His father, Yehoshua Avizohar, was a man of the Second Aliyah who wrote early Hebrew textbooks. As a youth he belonged to the HaMahanot HaOlim movement and joined Mapai, and in 1942 he joined kibbutz Hamadia and married Esther Kluger.

He studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and later earned a PhD from the London School of Economics. In the War of Independence he fought with the Moriah battalion in Jerusalem, then served as an education officer. He edited the army paper Bamahane in 1949 to 1950 and again in 1954 to 1957.

He was among the founders of Eilat and headed the Negev and Arava department of the Ministry of Development in 1952 and 1953. From 1961 to 1965 he sat on the editorial board of Davar. In 1965 he left Mapai with David Ben-Gurion and helped found Rafi.

He helped found the National List and entered the Knesset for it in 1969. He later left the party, and in July 1973 his faction merged with the Alignment. He lost his seat in the 1973 elections.

From 1970 he lectured at Tel Aviv University. He later headed the Ben-Gurion Heritage Institute and led the publication of Ben-Gurion's diaries. He died in 2008.