Uri Elitzur

Uri Elitzur was born in 1946 in Jerusalem

Uri Elitzur was born in Jerusalem in 1946. His father was Professor Yehuda Elitzur and his mother was the children's author Rivka Elitzur.

He studied at the Netiv Meir yeshiva in Jerusalem and later at the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva under Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook. He served in Battalion 50 of the Nahal paratroopers. He later taught mathematics at a Jerusalem high school and held a master's degree in mathematics from the Hebrew University.

In 1975 he joined the new settlement of Ofra and became active in the Gush Emunim movement. He served as secretary general of the Yesha Council, acting secretary general of the National Religious Party, and editor of the newspaper Nekuda. He ran for the Knesset on the Tehiya list in 1981 and the Morasha list in 1984.

In 1998 he was chief of staff to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He edited Nekuda again until 2006, then became deputy editor of Makor Rishon and its editor in 2013. He also wrote columns for Yedioth Ahronoth and Maariv and wrote speeches for public figures.

In his writing he argued that Israel should annex Judea and Samaria and grant citizenship to its Palestinian residents. He received the Sokolov Award for lifetime achievement. He died of colon cancer in 2014 and was buried in Ofra.