Yosef Vanunu

Yosef Vanunu was born in 1945 in El Kelaa des Sraghna

Vanunu was born on 7 August 1945 in El Kelaa des Sraghna, Morocco. His father was a rabbi. The family moved to Israel in 1955, lived first in moshav Gefen and settled in Kiryat Malakhi in 1957, where his father built the town's first synagogue.

He studied economics and agriculture at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He later earned a PhD in economics at Bar-Ilan University. He was discharged from the IDF as a sergeant.

He worked as an economist and sat on the Histadrut council. In 1981 he was elected head of the Kiryat Malakhi local council on the Herut list and was re-elected twice. He later joined the Labor Party and sat on its central committee.

He entered the Knesset in 1992 and served on the finance, economics and interior committees. He lost his seat in the 1996 elections. Today he works as a business consultant.

In 1997 a court convicted him of bribery, fraud and breach of trust for acts from 1989, while he was head of Kiryat Malakhi. He was sentenced to 12 months, half as community service and half suspended, and fined 40,000 shekels. The Supreme Court rejected his appeal.